Message 30 of 30 on *Gossip (#165):
Date:     Wed Oct 28 22:03:19 1998 EST
From:     Wouldn't ya like ta know!  :P
Subject:  Just Another Candidate Chore...

Well, it was bound to happen. Eilish's pregnancy from one of Loralith's 
flights was nearing its ninth month, and she was growing all the more 
irritable. In one such fit of irritability, the Weyrsecond stormed down 
to harrass any Candidates caught slacking in the barracks. Eos and 
Kaeden were found, and the full wrath of Eilish was going to be let 
loose in the form of tubers, but she only made it to the bowl -- labor 
pains.

The candidates we dragged into a nook of the lower caverns and a pain-
wracked Eilish ordered them -- namely, former Healer Apprentice Kaeden -
- to deliver her baby. After much screeching, humming of firelizards, 
and squishing of Eos' hand, Igen Weyr's Weyrsecond gave birth to her 
fourth daughter, named Kaeos after the candidates who delivered her.

Does this mean Eilish will be in good spirits with the candidates now? 
Likely, not.
--------------------------

Main Living Cavern

The careless glitter of rose quartz reflects and refracts the light from 
within its bed of granite, each beam bringing a new shifting, a new 
subtlty of sight. Rows of long trestle table are seated in orderly 
awareness under the carven vault of the ceiling, centered around a great 
dais upon which sits the best-made one; this, too, shows the roughness 
of the others, but a roughness smoothed by time, and accented by the 
complexity of beams that show Turns-taken tesselation in their upward 
arch. Neither tapestries nor coverings mar the marbling of wild beauty, 
leaving unadorned grandeur that in naturalistic simplicity provides 
comfort to the occupants of the cavern. One archway, the only covered by 
a drape of black and gold, shields the entrance to the bowl from the 
blow of sand; another, almost unobtrusive, marks the entrance to the 
lower caverns through a short, winding and uncarefully-carved tunnel.

Perched somewhere up high, you see Stub.
You see Suaray, Bessie, and Leigha's Bread Board here.
Jaster and Gilean are here.
Ceallache and Lanessa are asleep here.
From here you can go:
Bowl                      Lower Caverns              Infirmary                 

Jaster palms the strip, waiting for Stub to finish his current prize.
Gilean turns his gaze to Jaster, and nods. "Yeah." 
Gilean says, "By the way, I'm Gilean."
Stub squawks greedily and abandons Gilean, homing in on the ever-so-
much-more-appealing bit of meat. 
Kaeden trudges in, broom draped across his back, blue Drizzle occupying 
one shoulder and bronze Squeak dozing on the other. "H'lo..." he greets 
the two unfamiliar faces, unshouldering his broom to start in on his 
tedious sweeping chores.
Jaster widens his grin to a beaming smile, offering one forearm as a 
convenient landing strip while the other hand dangles the meat. Eyes on 
Stub, he responds, "And I'm Jaster. Good to meet you."
Gilean says, "And it is good to meet you."
Jaster glances away from Stub long enough to nod to Kaeden. "Evening.... 
say, that's a nice pair."
Kaeden doubletakes and peers as he catches the flurry of wings out the 
corner of one eye. "Stub!" The brown pauses in his chewing to crane his 
short neck around sheepishly. "Uh... I'm sorry, he usually doesn't 
bother people, he must've smelled food on you..."
Gilean looks to Kaeden, and nods. "Well, we offered the food to... Stub, 
did you say?"
Jaster laughs, a clear, hearty sound, and shakes his head. "Smelled? Not 
just smelled... We sorta made the offer. He yours?" His face sobers a 
bit. "Err, hope you don't mind..."
Kaeden sets his broom against the wall and walks over with a smirk, but 
Stub merely hops to Jaster's other arm -- the one farther away -- and 
continues to chew. The Healer-Candidate ruffs a hand through his hair 
disgruntledly. "Oh. Err, no, I don't mind... I thought maybe he was 
bothering you."
Kaeden sticks his hand out abruptly. "I have no manners," he grins. 
"Kaeden, Igen Weyr Candidate," he introduces himself. "..Gilean, did I 
hear that right? And..." he lift an eyebrow at Jaster, waiting for a 
name.
Gilean nods, two or three loose strands of his raven hair moving to hang 
in front of his left eye. After movign the offending strands from his 
forest-green eye, he says, "Yes, you did. Nice to meet you, Kaeden."
Jaster holds the other arm up without complaint, smiling once more as he 
divides his attention between 'Stub' and Stub's keeper. "Anything but. 
I've got a soft spot for the little flitters." He offers the free hand 
now. "Jaster... you're a Candidate?" He sounds more than a bit 
impressed.
Squeak unlids one eye sleepily, emitting a querelous chirp. Kaeden 
reaches up with his free hand to rub the hatchling's eyeridges as he 
shakes Jaster's hand. "Well met... yeah, green Lucith took a liking to 
me for some reason," he smiles. "Must've sensed my inherit ability at 
peeling tubers."
Jaster watches Kaeden now with an unmistakable wistfulness in his pale 
blue eyes. "Good luck to you..."
Kaeden flushes faintly. "Thanks... though I'm at the point now where I'm 
wondering if they'll /ever/ hatch," he grins.
Gilean chuckles, "Yes, good luck to you, Kaeden. I only hope that my 
petition to join the Harper Hall is as successful as you."
Jaster chuckles, shaking Kaeden's hand firmly. Once released, a finger 
strays to the pale scar beneath his chin, absently rubbing it as he 
nods. "The last few moments are the longest, I hear."
Gilean stands, and realizes that he's forgotten his manners. He stands 
and offers his hand to Kaeden as well.
Kaeden ughs. "By that rationale they oughta be hatching any time now, 
then," he chuckles. "I feel like I've been sweeping caverns and peeling 
tubers my whole life." Despite his attempts to calm the little bronze, 
Squeak stirs more and lets out a piercing creel. About to shake Gilean's 
hand, Kaeden suddenly winces and reaches up to grab the hatchling. "Erk. 
Sorry, these things are just flying stomachs," he grimaces.
Jaster nods, smirking in sympathy. "How well I've seen..." He looks to 
Stub with a grin. "At least, when they aren't so stuffed they can't lift 
off."
Gilean chuckles a bit.
Gilean says, "It's alright. A girl in my hometown had a blue and a 
bronze."
Kaeden makes for the platter of sandwhich meats, plucking out a few 
slabs of cold herdbeast and stuffing one of the chunks down Squeak's 
gaping maw. "Oh, Stub's like that all the time," he replies, happy to 
talk about his fair anytime. "That's how he got his name. He's stubby," 
he smirks at the brown, receiving an indignant chirp in response.
Jaster nods, "There were more than a few in our hold as well... I never 
got around to having any of my own, but then, everyone's were my own in 
a way. I spent enough time with them."
Gilean nods to Jaster, "Same here."
Jaster says, "He's just... squat. Yeah. Solidly built. That's it. Aren't 
you?"
Jaster gives Stub a sly wink.
Stub preens.
Gilean chuckles.
Kaeden grins, sitting down to make the job of stuffing Squeak's throat 
slightly less unwieldy. "You don't have any of your own?" he guesses. 
"Well, if you stick around the Weyr long enough, you'll probably get 
stuck with 'em."
Jaster smiles benovelently and slips his free hand around to ever so 
gently stroke the curve of Stub's nape.
Jaster says, "So I've gathered... and gather I shall, without a doubt!"
Stub tilts his head with an off-key croon, tail wrapping 'round Jaster's 
forearm.
Gilean says, "Not I, though it was a fair possibility back in my hold."
Kaeden gestures at Squeak, the runt bronze struggling to down a chunk of 
herdbeast without swallowing. "Take him, for instance... I was doing 
laundry of all things the other day and mistook his egg for a stone of 
soap. I'm not even gonna ask how he ended up there, but he hatched right 
in my hands."
Jaster turns the light stroke into a full job of indulgently petting the 
small brown.
Jaster looks to Kaeden with a touch of awed delight. "REally? Now THAT'S 
a story... lucky you. Who says laundry duty doesn't have its worthwhile 
moments?"
Gilean grins.
Jaster grumbles without much real rancor, "Of course, I just get the 
guard duty none of the longtermers want, 'stand here', 'watch this'..."
Kaeden chuckles. "Believe it or not, I got Stub out of a pile of socks, 
so maybe it's just me. Oh, you're a guard? D'you know Nicholas of Telgar 
Weyr, by chance?"
Jaster says, "I know we're supposed to have plenty of backbone... now I 
see why!"
Jaster continues rubbing his chin. "Ah, I don't believe so... friend of 
yours?"
Kaeden nods. "One of my first at Telgar, actually. He helped me get into 
the Healercraft when I was 12 Turns and confused," he grins.
Gilean ahs, and says, "I suppose I'll head to Harper Hall soon. The 
Harpers have always interested me."
Jaster says, "As opposed to 17 Turns and confused, like me."
Jaster grins.
Jaster says, "ACtually... I hope to find out more about the 
StarCrafters. It's fascinating..."
You say, "'Fraid I don't know a whole lot of them, or I'd get you a 
contact. I know plenty of miners and healers, but I don't think that'd 
help."
Jaster shrugs lightly. "Couldn't hurt... friends are friends."
Gilean nods in agreement.
Jaster says, "And knowing the healers is always a good thing."
You say, "Always." He smirks evilly. "If you know us, we sometimes don't 
use the /cold/ instruments on you."
Jaster blinks once, then laughs his hearty laugh again. "I should have 
gotten to know my home hold healers better then!"
Jaster gives a mock shiver, holding his Stub-burdened arm steady as he 
can.
Gilean grins and leans against a wall, "Are there any projections on 
when the eggs will hatch?"
Kaeden sighs, popping another bit of meat into Squeak's mouth. "Anytime, 
really, at least so I hear. We got to touch them last sevenday and they 
felt almost hard /then/."
Gilean ahs.
Trii walks in from Lower Caverns.
Jaster nods. "You must be ready to bounce off the walls..."
Kaeden snickers. "Well, that's why they keep us busy with all the 
chores..." he glances bleakly at his broom. "Oh well, better than 
sitting around driving myself insane, I guess."
Trii wanders in, sucking on her thumb like mad.  Giggling as she sees 
all 'em peoples, the girl nods in a cordial manner.  "Oh hellos"
Jaster turns slightly, one hand on the neck of Stub, who perches on his 
left forearm. He gives an extended nod to Trii, like a fractional bow. 
"Hello to you too."
Gilean nods to Trii as well. 
Kaeden frees one hand from its flit-feeding duties to wave to the little 
girl. "Heya."
Squeak abruptly burps and passes out on the tabletop.
Gilean laughs, brushing the loose strands of hair away from his eyes 
again.
Kaeden shakes his head and scoops up the hatchling with a sigh. "Flying 
stomachs," he repeats to himself under his breath, depositing the 
unconscious bronze on his shoulder.
Trii grins impishly, toddling across the room and to where all the 
others are. "Haves you seen Booboo?" Her eyes sparkle as they dart 
around the now familiar room
Kaeden tilts his head bemusedly. "Booboo? Is that a firelizard?" he asks 
as he stands and heads across the room to reclaim his broom.
Trii shakes her head, "I don'ts got nos flitterlizards" She informs, her 
voice growing quiter.  "Sees, he's my friend.. Booboo.. and I can'ts 
find him, think he gots lost 'gain"
Kaeden hmms solemnly, starting to sweep the area around his feet. "Well, 
what's he look like? Maybe I've seen him."
Trii grins, moving her hands wwiiddee apart to show meaning.  "He's 
ttthiiis big" Standing back a little, "And has a little nose.. and 5 
feets.. yupyup.. and he runs 'round and likes to sniffle at people's 
ears"
Jaster snorts faintly and smothers a grin.
Kaeden smiles, pretending to think carefully on the matter. "What color 
is he?" he asks, perfectly serious.
Jaster coughs and jerks, fighting back a full laugh.
Trii knits her brows in something that could resemble concentraition.  
"He's purple.. and sometimes has green spots, whenevers he gets really 
mad.."
Kaeden slides an impish look Jaster's way. "Got something stuck in your 
throat?" he inquires sweetly. Looking back down to the girl, he presses 
his lips together thoughtfully and shakes his head. "Hmm... nope, I 
don't think I've seen him around. I'll let you know if I do, though."
Gilean grins.
Jaster sobers with an effort and says, "Just a little dry..."
Jaster nods gravely. "Yes, if we see something like THAT around here, 
we'll pass the word around..."
Trii nods, casting an odd look at Jaster.. muttering something about 
'silly person', she turns back to Kaeden.  "Oh... k's.. tanks, and if 
you do see him; tell him that he's in really big trouble"
Kaeden grins and nods. "All right, I'll tell him."
Gilean stretches a bit, "How long have you been at Igen Weyr, Kaeden?"
Kaeden sweeps. "Just since I was Searched, actually. A few sevendays. 
Feels like forever, but..." he shrugs. "Before this I was at Telgar Weyr 
for a few Turns, and I'm from Bitra originally."
Gilean ahs.
Trii blinks out of her trance, falling over sideways and landing on her 
bottom with a soft puff of air..
Jaster glances at Trii in concern.
Gilean frowns, looking to Trii.
Trii giggles from her place on the ground, "Uhohs.." And continues to 
giggle, until tears start rolling down her eyes..
Kaeden smirks, sweeping around her. "Are you all right?" he asks 
amusedly.
Trii nods, rolling over onto her other side and then onto her feet.. 
"Yahs *giggle* Thinks I just accidently got caught on the ground 
*giggle"  She dodges around the broom, looking more and more foolish
Jaster says quietly, "Someone fall down!" He offers a reassuring smile.
Kaeden chases after her with it a few steps with a playful swatting 
motion, then chuckles and gets back to work. Geeze, the people around 
here are dusty.
Drizzle chitters and digs his claws in tighter to the pad on Kaeden's 
shoulder, almost losing his balance. Blue tail snakes around to choke 
his humanpet for support.
Trii stops and peers at the fireflitty on the 'dult's shoulder, "Doesn't 
that hurt?!"
Gilean chuckles.
Jaster flops loosely into a chair and leans it back on two legs, helping 
himself to a snack from the platter. Chewing and swallowing 
thoughtfully, he whiles away his precious free evening, waiting for... 
anything.
Kaeden erks, wedging a finger between tail and neck to loosen Drizzle's 
grip gently. "No... but it probably would if I didn't have that guard on 
my shoulder." He glances Stub-ward. "I learned that the hard way with my 
first flit," he grins.
Feren walks in from NorthWest Bowl.
Trii giggles and hops around in small circles, finalyl finding her way 
over to the meatrolls.. helping herself to one <<or maybe six>> she pops 
the thing into her mouth, "Yahs.. cause they have sharps claws and all" 
Said through a mouthful of meatroll
Stub squawks and flaps from Jaster's arm to the back of his chair, 
perching there for more stability.
Feren walks in a little aprehensively, his hair windswept and his 
clothes ruffled by his recent flight...he looks around uncertain of what 
to do, sufficing with waving a hello and a rather plaintive look...
Jaster nods in understanding, rubbing his arm where Stub released it on 
takeoff, but not seeming to much mind. He leans forward slightly, 
rebalancing with the shift of weight to the back of his chair.
Kaeden nods politely to Feren, remembering his manners this time, and 
drags a bench out of the way so as to reach under the table with is 
broom.
Trii grins at the feren person, whom she seems to remember vaguely from 
somewhere.. hopping up to the 'dult, the girl stuffs 'nother meatroll 
her in mouth and giggles.. "You haven't seen Booboo, have you?"
Gilean nods to Feren as well, and picks up a bit of cheese and nibbles 
on it.
Jaster nods an amiable greeting to the new arrival, gesturing to the 
platter of meatrolls. "You look hungry."
Feren grins, relieved that he's not interrupting...unused to weyrs the 
very feel of them envoke awe...he smiles at Jaster, extending a hand 
greeting "Hi there, I'm Feren...good to meet you" he grins "And yes, a 
roll or two would be good" he spares a look at the young girl, his 
memory triggered..nah..
Jaster returns his chair to all four feet, eliciting an indignant 
protest from the brown firelizard perched there. He takes the offered 
hand and shakes it firmly. "Jaster, the pleasure's all mine."
Leigha glides seamlessly in from NorthWest Bowl.
Gilean nods to Feren in greeting, "And I am Gilean."
Kaeden sneezes and drags himself out from under the table amid a puff of 
dust. "Kaeden," he adds, rubbing at his nose. "Hi, Leigha."
Trii smiles and nods to Leigha, having given up finding any signs of 
BooBoo here..
Leigha strolls into the living cavern, mop in hand, obviously done with 
some chore or another.  She grins wearily at Kaeden.  "Hi, Kaeden, 
whatcha' up to?"  She glances at the dust-wherries dancing around him.
Jaster looks to Leigha and nods to her at the mention of her name.

OOC: Kaeden whoops, just got called off to the OOC pre-hatching thing. 
See you on the sands :>