Hot Lava (Open)

[Kiran]

Dione surveyed the Candidate's barracks. They were unbelievably empty, the crush of people that she had heard about from the last hatching having Impressed and left just a bare skeleton of candidates for any future hatchings. She gave a soft humph and pursed her lips. Shame, that. More people would have made it more fun. But with the crush of people gone and the empty rooms, that meant leftover supplies and cots and blankets and pillows, and things that made this all the more fun.

The cleanup would be so worth it.

The newest Candidate stood in the middle of the hallway on a folded blanet, having pinned it to make sure that it wouldn't skid or scoot and cover more area than absolutely necessary. All the blankets were like that, scattered about at various angles and areas, having been flung about in a random pattern. That was the fun of the game! Now, to get moving to the common room. That would be tricky. "Hot lava!" Dione whispered to herself as she eyed the next target and gave a soft leap.

She landed on the pillow, but the unevenness of the fluff meant she nearly tipped off. Laughing, Dion waved her arms and balanced herself out so that she wouldn't fall over. A game she had played often enough back at Frontier. She wondered if anyone would join her. A little song escaped her as she eyed her next target and prepared to go for it.

Hot lava, burns at your feet,
Hot lava, escape is so sweet,
Hot lava, jump far away,
Hot lava, win and save the day!

It was a bit of nonsense that she had come up with when she was a kid, but the rhythm and tune of it helped her concentrate and time her jumps. Especially multiple ones where she was going for hitting a few right in a row - those were bonus points! The song was enough for her this time around to get four in a row that zigzaged across the hallway. A dangerous course as doors were known to open unexpectedly and people could turn corners at a moment's notice. Probably by definition, as it was a hallway, but it still gave some added danger and adrenaline to the whole thing.

Dione landed off on the last one and whirled her arms in the air, nearly tipping over. "No! The Lava!" she cried, fully seeing crimson death as her fate if she fell. Thankfully she caught herself and managed to get a brace against the wall. Technical fault but no one else was playing, were they? No. Dione was rather sad about that. She hoped someone would join in. With that thought she went for the last spot, an awkward blanket past a corner that she needed to turn. Pursing her lips she bent her knees and went as hard as she could. Dione's shoulder hit the corner....

And the rest of her crashed into a person. Dione bit her tongue as she hit them and both toppled to the floor. "Ow!" The candidate cried, tasting blood. A little of it dripped from the corner of her mouth. "Hey! Now we're on the hot lava! I lost!" She was a touch more disappointed in that than hitting the other Candidate. Or... was it a Candidate? Dione turned her attention to the person who she'd crashed into, embarrassed now about having hit them. It would have been more fun for them both to have played the lava game rather than get hurt with it....

[Tigersilk]

Annuziata's first thought when she stumbled across the stacks of pillows and blankets lying across the hallway was that someone was cleaning out the empty rooms for the next batch of Candidates. But then she remembered that that kind of cleaning would involve putting the dirty bedding into wheeled canvas bins for easier transportation to the laundry, and she didn't see any such bins in the hall. So the mystery remained a mystery.

Until she heard someone singing and laughing from down another hallway, where the piles of bedding led. Curious, Ziata walked towards the singing, wondering if the singer knew why the bedding was on on floor, and who was going to pick it all up again. She rounded the corner....

.....right as someone crashed into her, knocking Ziata to the ground. Untangling herself from the other person, Ziata saw it was a girl her own age, who was saying something about being in hot lava and loosing something. Must be a new girl, Ziata thought, since she hadn't seen this girl around until quite recently. Was she the one who made the mess in the hallways?

"Watch where you're going! You could have killed me with that stunt!" Ziata said angrily. Then less angrily, "Who are you, anyway? I haven't seen you around here before. You a Candidate, too?"

[Kiran]

The girl she had crashed into was as upset with Dione bumping into her as Dione was for the girl getting in her way. "I wouldn't have killed you! I only knocked you over! There's not anything dangerous out here, just me and my islands to save me from the lava!" The words were as grumpy as Ziata's accusation. Dione scrambled up and spat into her hand. The fluid was bloody, only showing that the bite to her tongue was definite, not just a hopeful wish that it was only a scrape. Dione made a disgusted face as she wiped it on her pants.

"I'm Dione. I just got here a day or two ago. Dad dropped me off from Frontier Weyr. My mom's one of the orangeriders, Lirone. He said I was too much trouble and should bother her for a bit. Haven't caused any trouble around here. Yet. Except for this." Dione scowled. The words were coming out a bit fuzzy because of her tongue and she could taste blood the whole while. Swallowing it down, the blue-eyed girl eyed the other one. Then she shrugged and sighed. "Come on, we can talk a bit while I get some water. I don't mind getting hurt, but it's nasty when it's my tongue."

It wasn't the first time she'd been injured like that, and wasn't likely to be her last. "So what's your name, and how long have you been here? I was hoping I'd find someone to come and show me around. I mean, I lived in a weyr my whole life, so I get how it's basically laid out, it's just the little nooks and crannies that are different. Ya know?" Maybe the girl didn't know. It was possible she was Hold-born and didn't know anything about weyrs. Dione would find out soon enough.

[Tigersilk]

Ziata got up while the other girl snapped back at her. Part of a mystery solved, at least. The mounds of bedding were pretend islands in a game she didn't know the rules of. She could ask about the rules, later, depending on whether she liked this new girl or not. Years of bullying had left the dark girl suspicious of others; on the other hand, Ziata would like someone her own age to play with that wasn't one of her sisters, too. She noted that the other girl - Dione, she said her name was - had bitten her tongue in the fall, but said nothing about it.

Ziata listened to Dione's introduction. She bristled a bit at the 'troublemaker' part; too many memories of being the target for troublemakers back home made her wary of them. Dione, though, didn't seem to be a malicious one, based on first impressions. She'd have to wait and see if Dione put the lie to that idea, though. Hopefully she'd be a good person to know, and maybe play with sometimes? Ziata did get lonely for company, sometimes.

"I'm Annunziata, Ziata for short," she replied as they started walking towards the area where the drinking water was kept in the Barracks. "Me and my sisters have only been here three months. We arrived less than two days before the last Hatching. They showed us where the eggs were, then put us on the Sands. All of us got lightly injured by a rampaging wheret." Given what else had happened that day, her bitten forearm was a mild injury in comparison. Ziata subconsciously rubbed her barey-healed bite mark as they continued walking. "My oldest sister got a beautiful Cyan out of it, at least. She's over at the Weyrling Barracks now. We don't see her as often as we used to; the rules say relationships with others can damage the new bonds with the dragonets, so we can only see her at mealtimes, and when she's bathing Ibith."

"I know a bit about the Weyr set-up from doing chores and a bit of my own exploring, so I know where most things are at. Just watch yourself when you're about the lake area, though. People have been known to go for a swim there, and leave with baby pillies following them back to their rooms." It was an old joke passed to newbies to the Weyr, but there was more than a bit of truth to it, from what Ziata had overheard from the talk of other people about the water bugs.

[Kiran]

Dione gave a low whistle at Ziata-for-short's story. "Wow, two days before? Couldn't have picked up a whole lot during lessons, then. Betcha you're glad you didn't get stuck with a dragon and having to figure out on the fly how to care about it, huh?" SHe gave the girl a small nudge, noting where the bite seemed to be. "Sounds like it was a nasty hatching, too. I'm actually sorry I missed it, saying you were to a dragon/wher double hatching is something that no one else on Pern can say they've done!" Dione grinned at her, only vaguely aware of the tempest that the whers had caused among the Candidates. "Sorry about your sister, but there's another Hatching coming up soon, right? I'm gonna be Standing for it myself. Bet that you'll be joining her in the barracks soon enough if you're going to be on the Sands this time around as well."

Dione saw the water and stepped up quickly, grabbing a mug and gulping down what she could. It was disgusting to try and speak with blood in her mouth. Thankfully the bleeding seemed to be slowing a bit. Even so, Dione kept a tight grip on the handle of the mug to keep it close. "Saw those pillies when I first came here. I can't decide whether I want one or not, so I'll be really careful when I go to the lake." A friendly wink was cast at Ziata. "I didn't bring any pets with me and they seem like the perfect little things to go exploring with, though a flit wouldn't be half-bad either. So what about you? You might not have a dragon yet, but do you have any pets? And are you looking forward to the next hatching?"

Better get the gist of things now. Ziata didn't seem too bad but they hadn't been speaking for that long. And Dione needed to know about how people were feeling about the coming Hatching. She felt something good was going to come of it. It was in her bones. And when she had hunches like that she was rarely wrong. Dione took another swig of her water as she kept her eyes on the younger Candidate.