Just a Dream (Bir)

[Chimera]

The sky was blue, its color and sheer vividness rivaling the water below it. But instead of the green tints that colored the ocean, the sky enjoyed a selection of ever-changing, fluffy clouds.

He looked up. Even Lanorun could unwind sometimes, though they were going through a very important event at the moment.

He looked up, watching a thinly-spread cloud. It slowly morphed into another form from a shapeless blob, becoming quicker the more he concentrated.

"Lanorun."

He gasped. Where did the voice come from? The teen wheeled around.

"Joshu? Nori? Mum? Da? Ran?" He frantically called for his family, but no answer. "Someone!" Lanorun's breathing become more frantic, more ragged.

He looked up.

"You failed." The cloud was a face, hollow holes in the damned formation representing eyes, absorbing the color of the sky.

And the eyes were red. Red as blood. And crying white tears, white tears that were falling sideways from their view, but down on Lan. There was no more grass, only cruel stone and for a moment echoes, ghosts of his family were visible.

"y o u f a I LED. YOU FAILED." They moaned, before the tears ate all of them alive, and the ringing in his ears hurt, and Lanorun couldn't move, couldn't breath, couldn't live as the tears of Thread fell on him -

"NO!" He screamed, flew out of bed, landing on the floor but recovering in an instant of sleep-addled terror as he dashed out of the room, spurting to the commons of the Candidate Barracks and collapsing on the couch. Lanorun buried his face in his hands, exhaling. "They're all..gone..."

Until he dared to peer out of his hands. Just a dream. His blood was still full of adrenaline, and the wher candidate's eyes darted around the room, and falling upon Inanna by pure chance.

"Why are you up? You shouldn't be up, you're. Ugh." His senses returned to him fully. "No, it's day, dragon candidates should be...I shouldn't be up. You're...you're a dragon candidate, you are? Well, since my damn brain seems to not like sleep tonight...day...I might as well know your name. I'm Lanorun. I sincerely hope you could tell I'm a wher candidate." He now returned to his usual surly self - mostly, evident by his passive glare at Inanna.

[birdi]

"Um?" Inanna quirked an eyebrow up as she saw someone run into the commons, in the middle of the sharding afternoon, having what looked to be a panic attack. While she wasn't on anyone's list for 'nicest candidate out there', she wasn't a total tool, and it seemed like everyone else in the room didn't want to approach the youth and see if he was alright.

Rolling her eyes in exasperation, cause surely someone else would be much better suited for this kind of delicate shaffit, Inanna had just started walking towards Lanorun when his eyes popped open.

Everyone in the room froze. Inanna wasn't surprised to see he focused on her first, considering she was moving towards him.

Placing her hands on her hips, Inanna examined Lanorun critically. He didn't seem to be in much of a position for intelligent conversation, considering the garbling. What in the fardles had happened to him?

"I figured as much when you said the bit about 'shouldn't be up', yeah." Inanna said, dryly.

She walked forward and knelt down at the couch. "Don't glare at me, mister," she said, unimpressed, "I think it is obvious that you need some help, even if you've scared all the rest of these folks away from doing so. Luckily for you, I'm not so easily cowed by sleepwalking wher candidate lads."

"You need some klah or something? Seemed to be a pretty bad dream you were having, there." She didn't ask him to divulge, figuring he would do so if he wanted to, and if he was a more private person then she wasn't going to press it.

"Oy! Someone fetch a wet cloth for his forehead!" She turned over her shoulder, then back at him, "You are drenched in sweat, by the by. I'd recommend a bath and a clean change of clothes before you sleep again."

[Chimera]

((ooc: sorry for the wait!!!))

Lanorun's sleepsand-crusted eyes focused on the room, as what had seemed to him blurs from panic and waking up, were actually quite surprised candidates staring at him. A girl with a curtain of red hair had eyes like large saucers in particular. But he couldn't tell if it was from his sudden dash into the commons or the nearly-empty, large mug of klah the girl held in two hands. He scoffed at the day crowd before facing Inanna again.

"Figured, huh." He wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or smug at this girl, because if Lanorun was born a girl, so far it was looking he'd be somewhat like her. Or more than 'somewhat'. Inanna's dry comment about Lanorun glaring didn't stop him from doing so. The tall, muscular Candidate got up from the couch, standing a bit over Inanna.

"Oh, not easily cowed a' the fright'nin' big...lad? Good fer ye then. Don't think klah'd heal all th' problems with my dreams, but...wouldn't hurt, y'know." His left eyelids scrunched up in what could barely pass as a wink. "Can offer ye for some, but think ye had too much already."

"Wow. Thanks for alertin' me. Might melt, y'know, bein' made outta sugar an' all. Can get my own wet cloth an' klah anyways." Lanorun rolled his eyes. A bath and clean change of clothes wasn't so easy to get when they lived in the wilderness, and seeing as the time spent living in the unprotected lands of Pern was far a longer period in the burly youth's life than his time as a candidate, he was rather used to one pair of clothes and being scruffy. Lanorun did appreciate the concern somewhat, inside, but he'd never admit it.

"Oh, an'...think I might have the 'honor' of knowin' yer name? Don't know what I was thinkin, wakin' up and babblin' mine to some person I don' know at all." He avoided mentioning anything about the dream; even the word was omitted in his sentences.

[birdi]

(pfft. Chim, I made you wait far longer xD)

Inanna raised a brow and tilted her head up as the tall wher candidate rose up to apparently attempt and intimidate her. Snorting, she reached out and patted his shoulder, in a manner which was almost exaggeratedly patronizing. "Good try, but I've been 'round men bigger and stockier than you, big boy, before I even reached to yay high by my papa's knees."

Plenty of folk she'd known had liked to pull that kind of maneuver on her, to make her step back or look away. She was having none of that shaffit.

"I would say there's no such thing as 'too much klah', but unlike you wher boys and girls over there, we lot keep regular hours and drinking klah past noon is sacrilege." Inanna's tone was dry, but a rippling of amusement flowed under it. He may not have made the strongest of first impressions, but he reminded her of ship-folk, and that could only be a good thing.

Had a bit of a bite to him, this one.

Inanna shrugged. It was no loss to her if he rejected her help, she weren't the mothering type in the first place. "Suit yourself. Don't know why anyone'd turn down free help but, hey, that's just me."

Again, Inanna snorted. "Maybe you were just plain sweeter and more likable half-asleep and traumatized?" she suggested, rolling her eyes. "Fair enough, though." She stretched out her arm in an offer to shake his hand; "Inanna's my name. Seacrafter by trade, dragon candidate by chance."

The rest of the room was beginning to slip back into normal conversation, rippling pleasantly around them, though everyone still gave them a wide berth.

She jerked her head in their general direction.

"Mayperhaps you'll even get lucky, and this lot'll forget what just happened, eh? Clean yourself up real quick, sneak back into you all's half of the barracks, and your friends might not even realize that you've been gone."

"Well, I could help, but I suppose you're too tough for that, then, hm?"

[Chimera]

Really, he wasn't intending to intimidate Inanna - even if Lanorun wanted to, she was evidently the type who'd be unfazed by it anyways. He turned his head slowly towards the hand she'd placed on his shoulder, viewing it like a stray insect that had landed.

"Regular hours? I'd say it's subjective. Y'know...even if I was younger, I wouldn't wanna be Searched. Dragon candidates tend to think they're the cream of th' crop o' Pern. 'Specially the ones who do become riders, and I haven' seen any rider who did their job well yet. The wher candidates I've seen are a strange bunch, but 'least they volunteer themselves, not get whisked away by some giant...flizzard. 'Course the Searched have a choice too, but come on, dunno who'd turn it down, usually they don'." His thoughts strayed to Ran and Nori, who just had to choose to be Candidates...and the riders who came far too late for their parents, the riders who, if they'd done their job, wouldn't have caused this nightmare.

He grasped Inanna's hand and shook it firmly.

"Well, nice ta meet you, Inanna. Don' have a craft or trade, but I guess chance brought me here too. Siblings are here as dragon candidates, and the older one's behind the tastier food you might've eaten in the Dinin' Hall." He said it with a proud, doting tone. He was here for his family after all.

"Seems I already got lucky. They have the attention span o' flits usually." He thought for a moment.

"Oh yes, much too tough. Dunno 'bout you, I'm goin' outside for a bit. Not like I'm used ta th' night schedule much anyways. So, y' miss th' sea? Or not, since we're on an islan' anyways?"

[birdi]

Inanna shrugged. She still thought the sight of a good ship was a thousand times more awe-inspiring than a dragon coming in overhead, but that was because men built ships and as far as she could tell dragons had always just been. After all, he was right. Even she'd had her doubts and accepted anyway. How many people turned down the offer to try their hand at Impressing? However, she'd never really viewed riders as haughty, not the one's she'd seen about. Could be she'd just been lucky.

"Surely you've seen one rider who has done their job well?" she asked.

Good grip, Inanna found herself judging absentmindedly. It was the easiest way to tell anything about a person. She clasped his right back, solid and firm.

Inanna would've asked for features, but it was likely she didn't know them. She was still new yet, after all. Still, she nodded appreciatively when he mentioned the food. They did seem to have one or two cooks around this place that knew their way around a kitchen. "One of those is your folk? Send my complements along, will ya?"

She couldn't help but chuckle at the other dragon candidates' expenses. "Yeah, well, they're like that." She looked over her shoulder at them. "Excitable, easily distracted bunch in general. Must be the promise of dragons or something."

Inanna almost didn't follow him, but then she remembered she had nothing better to do right now -- the reason she was in some place like the common room in the first place was because she had a break of a few candlemarks to burn -- and he'd kept talking to her anyway, so after a brief hesitation, she followed.

"Like an ache," she admitted, "island or not, nothing replaces the constant touch of the sea. Not like I can just spend all my hours near it, there's candidate responsibilities, and after that if I Impress, dragon ones."

She frowned. "Still, passing up on this kind of opportunity?" She shook her head. "Movin' forward, passing on the comfortable, an' hoping what's unknown beyond that door's worth it, if there's even anythin."

Stepping outside, she took a deep breath and relaxed, enjoying the wind. "Ah, that's better. Far less noise and people all cramped in one space." Inanna breathed.

Turning back, she shot him a critical look. "Don't seem to be much fond of riders, but ya said your siblings are dragon candidates like me. How's that all set up?"

[Chimera]

"One rider? Well, they're doin' somethin ta fight Thread fer sure, but...fer th' most par', riders could do much better. So many times they're late. Anyways. Enough a' that." He sighed.

Lanorun did let a half-smile creep across his face for a little.

"I'll be sure ta next time I see 'im."

He looked at the Dragon Candidates again - very little seemed to know what they were in for. Blood, sweat, and tears. He'd already gone through all three, but many of the Candidates were soft, holdbred children who looked at the world in rose-tinted spectacles.

He widened his eyes, interested at Inanna's response.

"Hm. Yeah, all ye know pretty much is banned in Candidacy, and ye can' really be carefree with a dragon..or wher, either. 'Tis a shame."

Lanorun wholeheartedly agreed with the female Candidate - the Weyr Bowl was at least large and wide open.

He frowned.

"How's that set up? Whaddya think? They were stubborn, and I had ta go after them. I'd never abandon my family, even in places like..this." He regarded a gargantuan stone wall of the Weyr rather sourly. "D'ye have any loved ones? Here, somewhere else?"