Candidate Q&A (Candidates!)

[ShadowReine]

How had he ever got talked into this? Couldn't...say, S'koin do it? Z'war was pretty sure he could not relate at all to the bright, eager young faces who filed into the classroom.

Why, should these kids even be out of the creche. As they entered, though, he stood up straight. Ack was on one shoulder, Sharp nowhere to be seen. "Okay. I'm not going to be too formal here. I'm Z'war, rider to blue Kwerth."

Ack chirpled something and he reached up to scritch the firelizard. "This isn't a lesson, per se, it's an opportunity. I'm here to answer -any- questions you might have about hatchings, impressions, weyrlinghood and being a rider." He wondered if some smart ass would ask him if he could even remember being a weyrling. Some days he didn't...and he wasn't even -that- old. "Anything at all. If you have a difficult question and don't want to ask in front of the group, just let me know and I can answer it later."

He managed to quirk a smile at the kids. But he was not so sure this wasn't all a waste of time. Lyeth had flown, but would she clutch?

Could she?

[yamamoto]

Andol walked into the room though of course he sat in the very back. He clucthed Emerald to his chest while of course Topaz sat on his shoulders. He sat there thinking about the sky. The grass. The trees and water. Though of course Andol was in his own little world and he really did not see a need to ask a question. The whole think seemed self expelantory to him. Though of course alot of things seemed that way to him. He soon started drawing on a peiece of paper that he had with him.

[tariala]

Nebrona watched the bluerider intently, a slight frown on her face. She’d just arrived at the Weyr yesterday, and she wasn’t even sure she could count the amount of questions she had about this whole process. Up until then, she’d been secure in her future, on the brink of completing her training, and then entering marriage with Olorn.

The blonde tucked her hair behind her right ear in a subconscious, nervous, gesture as she thought about what to ask. The drawing boy caught her attention as she did so, and she shook her head at his arrogance. He was lucky he’d never been under the eye of her drillmasters, any one of which would have jumped on him for such blatant disrespect. Honestly, if the boy wasn’t interested, the least he could do was fake attention. It wasn’t that hard to do, unless you got someone who was looking for the difference.

But if he wasn’t going to, he wasn’t going to, and it wasn’t any skin off her nose if he missed something important. Nebrona looked back at the bluerider, and cautiously raised her hand. Upon acknowledgement, she asked “Sir, how soon can we expect to know if Lyeth will clutch?” Perhaps not the most polite question, but an important one. It was one that even the people who’d Searched her had danced around a sure answer for. “And is it true that candidates aren’t allowed on the Sands if they’re still virgin by the Hatching?” It wouldn’t affect her either way- she was no loose woman, but she and Olorn had ventured into such matters a time or two. Nebrona figured it was alright, since they were –had been, or just short of- betrothed to be married. Now, who knew? But she was curious as to the truth of that little rumor, and how the rider would answer it.

[yamamoto]

Andol countied his drawing. Though on the outside it would look to anyone that he was wasn't paying attetntion. Which was his purpose. He like to be that way to make it esiaer to be oberverate of others. Some may call it spying though in this sutation it served a purpose. He lisinted to the girls questions. Though the last one cuaght his attention becuase he stopped drawing for a sec to see what the bluerider would say. Andol's weridness and shyness mostly put people off so he had never exporled such matters before with anyone. So the question did affect him. He hoped that it was just a rumor and that he would not be kept form standing for what he considered a very stupid reason.

[phlysolo]

OoC: Okay, I'm going to be posting up a 'fuzzy-time' thread with Lenia and Kaiton to give a little bit of back story about this post here. It'll be entertaining, I swear.

Oh, and Reine, I'm sure S'koin could make an appearance.

Kaiton was nervous and uneasy. That...that...female, if he could even call her as much, had been tailing him all day-again! She was the biggest arse-face he'd ever met and she seemed take an inhuman delight in tormenting him in even the slightest pass-by of each other. He hardly even knew the girl and yet she seemed to know an unnerving about of information about Kaiton and his day to day habits. Even more strangely, she didn't even seem to be interested in men in the first place.

Why did he always find himself such an easy target for bullies? He didn't understand it at all! Kaiton tried to keep his nose down: He could out smart just about anyone, but did know when to keep his head down and try to avoid trouble. To have someone so deliberately set out against him was a completely new experience for him-and not the warm, inviting type. Why did Lenia have to be such a jerk, anyways? He never did anything to her except point out she was wrong over some minuscule little fact about one of the Learning Ballads...

He entered the classroom designated for Candidate lessons with Lenia stalking some dragonlength behind him. She was so creepy! Kaiton's nerves were already on edge from this perspective lesson with a real dragonrider! He was going to learn from the best, the wisest and he couldn't look a fool! Still, he hardly knew anything about dragon-kind in general...Lenia's aggressiveness wasn't helping his churning stomach at all! She was sure to say something that would embarrass him! Or make him look stupid...

Hoping to deter her from doing so, the Candidate took a seat in the very front, almost directly in front of Z'war himself. She wouldn't bother him here! He looked back at the girl who'd asked the man a question a few moments later and frowned, returning his attention to the front. He'd never heard that before. Why would a girl be banned from Standing if she'd never done the deed before? That just didn't make sense to him.

A few seats away from and behind Kaiton, Lenia was wondering the same thing. She took had writing utensil and paper in front of her and, like Andol, was sketching something. Unlike that numbwit, she was actually drawing something of worth. It was true that she didn't get along with that smart-mouth, thingyy little wherry-head, but he was certainly fun to torment. Lenia, of course, would not be bothered to spare a glance at that worthless waste of space And-arse either. Ugh, frankly the both of them could go suck her big toe.

Now this girl...She was worried about Standing a virgin was she? Lenia would have to corner her after the lesson...Her attention wavered slightly as she heard Kaiton's squeaky little voice pipe up and she rolled her eyes, returning to her drawing. He thought he was so smart, so cool. Lenia would show him a thing or two.

In following him the past couple of days, she'd come to find out that he was a bit insecure and probably had a few friends as Lenia herself did. And probably for good reason! The boring little tart spent most of his time in the Weyr's archive rooms, pouring over old Records. How boring. Still, she'd learned little tics about him, little ways to get under his skin. Indeed, just following him around seemed to be working wonders.

"Sir, do you think Lyeth's Clutch will be affected like that wild firelizard clutch was?" Kaiton asked, right after the girl had finished firing off her questions. "Do you think there will be ones like the one Weyrleader H'zu has?"

Lenia rolled her eyes again. Ugh, there was another male she couldn't stand. It didn't help that he had that freak firelizard. Midna had been banded, naturally, with the Weyr's colors after the Weyrleaders had proclaimed it so, but she didn't see why his freak bronze-blue thing needed one. No other firelizard on Pern was colored like that mutant.

What was Kaiton curious for? He wasn't going to Impress anyways. She rolled her eyes again and put the finishing touches on the drawing. It was perfect, despite the fact that she was no artist. And Kaiton had picked the perfect spot to sit! Being right in front of the instructor-so like the teacher's pet he was-had one major disadvantage. Sure, he was right in front of Z'war, but his attention was going to be on the students farther back in the room. He wasn't going to stare down his nose at that little speck of a boy Kaiton.

Smirking with triumph, seeing that Kaiton's full attention was on the bluerider, she quickly and deftly folded the sheet of paper into a "flying lizard*" shape, then launched it at the other Candidate. It hit him squarely, and perfectly on the side of his head. He jerked and blinked and twisted violently, trying to see what had hit him, who had hit him.

His eyes focused on the paper laying dully on his desk and he frowned at it, rubbing his cheek. Slowly and carefully he unfolded it, his eyes widening. A soft gasp escaped him and he turned a rather blotchy shade of red. The picture depicted an eight legged, grossly deformed dragonet who had pinned a headless human shaped figure on the ground and had clearly bitten its head off. Scrawled with an arrow pointing at the person was his name 'Kaiton' in long, spiky handwriting.

Fury and a horrible sense of paranoia surged through the lad and his head whipped around quickly before they found a cruelly smirking face: Lenia. He was about to retaliate, but knew that he couldn't. If he were to get up, Z'war would surely punish him...

Seeming to fully enjoy the position of power she had over the other Candidate, she promptly turned her attention to Z'war and asked a question of her own, "What's the first day like after Impressing?"

OoC:

* = The Pernese variation of a paper airplane. I'm sure that this fun little design must have stood the test of time, as they're so easy to make and entertaining to throw at someone and cause mischief.

[yamamoto]

While Andol was waiting he just so happen to finish his drawing. He looked at it. It was a picture of Emerald and Leaf flying around. He made sure to label which was which. He looked up in time to wacth a paper airplane being thrown. He smiled inwardly. So he drew on the other side a picture of face with the tonuge sticking out. Of course the picture on the back gave away who it was form, but he did not care as folded it up to the best of his abilitis and threw his paper airplane and hit Lenia square in the cheek. The instant it hit he went back to drawing anthoer picture with a distant look on his face.

[ShadowReine]

Z'war held up a hand. "Alright, I'm going to answer them in order."

"On the first, a queen dragon generally becomes visibly egg heavy about six weeks after the flight and about two weeks before clutching. So, we will know in about six weeks." And then he smiled at Nebrona. "On that question...no...it's a vicious rumor. We do encourage those candidates who are old enough to sexually experiment before the hatching as being a virgin for one's first flight can be highly unpleasant, but it's definitely not a requirement."

Then Z'war glanced to Kaiton. "We really have no idea. The only good news on that front is that neither of the mutated firelizards seems unhealthy. They're both being observed by the healers, they're eating well and flying...as you all should know, firelizards can fly as soon as their wings dry. They seem to have their empathic and betweening abilities, and we plan on testing them with firestone when they get a little older, just in case. So, what I would say is...we don't know, but nobody should be afraid of them. Thus far...we haven't seen any function-affecting mutations." He didn't voice his fear that dragons might be more severely affected.

Then...the paper airplane throwing started. Z'war stalked towards the two offenders. "Any more of that, and I'll toss you both out of the lesson." And no...he didn't answer Lenia's question. Not right away...

[yamamoto]

Andol lisitined closly as the questions were answered and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that it did not matter. Though the answer made him roll his eye's abit. His weridness put people off egough that he couldn't if he wanted to. Which he had to admit he did. Though he did expect to get in trouble over the paper airplane throwing. He did not expect to have Topaz hissing at Z'war over it. This made Andol facepalm becuase he was alittle embressed. The bronze was way to proctective and would hiss at just about anyone who threw any sorta of anger in Andol's direction. He just reached up and gently grabbed Topaz's mouth and held it shut and the bornze stopped. Though at that moemnt Emerald started hissing at the bluerider. Andol reached up and did the same to her. He then let go of both and hoped they would not do the same thing again.

[tariala]

Ah. Nebrona made a mental note of Z'war's answers, including the thought that she might want to look into getting a a little more experience for herself, should Lyeth actually clutch. She wasn't starry-eyed enough to imagine that Olorn was the prime example of intimacy, and if flights could be.. a bit rough on the uninitiated, it would be best to be prepared for anything. Likely, the rumor was one that nervous parents used to scare their kids into refusing candidacy- and no doubt the threat of shame and ruin did work on those worried about coming home again.

The question about mutations startled her, and she refocused on the conversation in a hurry. News and rumor about the Weyrleader's firelizard -and hadn't there been another one, too?- had reached the Hold. but at the time it hadn't rated more than idle curiosity. But that the dragons could be similarly affected... that spoke for more chilling possibilities. What if function did get affected? And just color changes could cause problems by themselves- could a dragon turn up with no colors as easily as a blend of them? A dragon like that might even have trouble flying Thread in the daytime, like she'd heard humans similiarly affected being unable to tolerate much exposure to the sun.

Z'war's disciplining of the doodling duo prompted Nebrona to calm down about what might be, and start thinking about practical questions she could ask about now. "Sir, what's it like to Impress?" She asked, once she felt that the storm had passed enough that she wouldn't draw the bluerider's ire for interrupting. "Not the actual Impression, I mean. Everything after that. I heard it can be pretty intense. Do people ever get overwhelmed by it- have problems with such a bond?" A person could think they were ready for such a thing all they wanted, but sometimes expectation didn't always match reality.

[phlysolo]

Lenia had, of course, picked the perfect spot to sit. She had a fairly good view of all the occupants of the classroom and was able to see something...heading towards her face. Instinctively, she ducked down and something flighty skimmed the top of her head and landed lifelessly on the desk. In an instant Midna appeared from nowhere and snatched the paper up then disappeared again. Annoying little firelizard! But who had thrown that piece of pap-Andol that worthless sack of dead-glow! She was about to yank up another sheet of paper that she'd brought, crumple it, and heave it at him when-

"Anymore of that and I'll toss you both out of the lesson!"

What, what, what?! Who was this old, decrepit man to tell her what and what not to do?! Lenia's blue eyed gaze sharply, narrowed into slits, met Z'war's. She was ablaze with fury, but snapping at the man would not get her anywhere. Grinding her teeth together in annoyance and outrage, she sat firmly back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest.

At least she was able to take her mind of her anger, as that blond spoke up again. She was a pretty little thing, Lenia thought, eying her instead of the bluerider. Muscular, too. Interesting...

Her thoughts were again interruped when a flurry of movement and blue snatched Lenia's attention up. From where he sat, Kaiton looked took his undivided attention away from Z'war as well. A man, yes indeed he would have to be a man. He looked even a shade older than Lenia had quickly crossed the room's threshold and had seated himself at the desk and chair closest to the door.

He looked primed and self-confident, as though nothing could ruffle his feathers. Indeed, he merely gave the bluerider a small nod as if to apologize for his lateness. Even from behind him where Lenia was, or to the stranger's far side, his journeyman shoulder knots were visable.

A journeyman? Kaiton thought. What would a journeyman harper want with the Candidate lessons? He hadn't been bunked with the rest of the Candidates in the Lower Caverns. Was he even a Candidate? Or trying to collect information from Records.

Indeed, he did look a tad out of place from the rest of them, garbed in full harper blue with a set of pipes hanging loosely from his belt. Days before Henerik had received a message, via Scuttle, from the Master Harper himself requesting that the man, if at all possible, could attend Candidate lessons as well as performing his duties as a harper. It wasn't too difficult a request, really, and Henerik was interested to see what exactly a Candidate had to learn past the traditional Learning Ballads and Songs.

Already the class was in session and, apparently, it was an open round table where the Candidates could fire off their questions and get the responses from a dragonrider, in this case, bluerider Z'war. He supposed it couldn't hurt to ask questions of his own.

"Excuse my late arrival, bluerider," Henerik said, his voice calm and almost serenely musical. "I was wondering how many ranking Crafters were accepted as Candidates and then how many of them actually Impressed."

[ShadowReine]

Z'war acknowledged Lenia with a nod. She was likely to be trouble. "And in answer to your question, Candidate Lenia, for the first few days I'm afraid the dragonets do little but eat and sleep...think about when your firelizard first hatched, only more so. We use that time to teach the new weyrlings dragon care, basic first aid and help them settle in to their new status."

Okay. The next question....was inevitable. "I can't describe impression. Those of you who have firelizards experience a poor echo of it. It's one of those things that has to be experienced. Some new weyrlings do find themselves somewhat overwhelmed...usually those who get a color other than what they expected."

And then...the harper. Sitting in on candidate lessons. Well, there was certainly no rule against it. "We seldom accept ranking crafters for the simple reason that they tend to be too old, and also, the crafts are less willing to let a journeyman go than an apprentice. Few want to, at that point. But they have the same chance of Impression as anyone else...which means, if a compatible dragon hatches, they Impress, if not... It's worth remembering. The dragons don't know what somebody was before they became a candidate. Or care. They care only about a personality that's compatible with theirs."

[dotta]

So, many questions being thrown at the noble dragon rider. Those who were wise and studious paid close attention to this man. The same could not be said of Kathal, however. The boy stared idly at the old man while his hands absently caressed Crabby's head who was in a world of his own. Had this class not been mandatory, the boy would have never shown his face. What could one possibly have to know about dragons? Sure they were intelligent, but they couldn't be any more different then firelizards? They ate, they slept, they reproduced, and most of all: they defended against thread.

Kathal had no interest in hearing the questions that were being answered now. He wanted the man to tell them what mattered: When will they be assigned to wings? Someone as superior as Kathal would have no trouble comprehending everything else. That was just the small detail.

Seated a mere two seats away from Kathal was another being. Talo. She was no candidate herself, but she hoped to become one. Luckily, one of the cavern worker had told her old this meeting. Talo wasn't sure if the worker merely had her mistaken for another, but it never hurt to still attend. And never a journeyman came to listen in, so she wasn't at fault. But after hearing all these questions, Talo decided to ask one of her own,

"Dragon Rider, what makes a dragon choose one person over another?"

[tariala]

Hm. Z'war's answer hadn't exactly been what she'd been looking for. Nebrona was a bit concerned about the notion of close mental contact with another creature, and had hoped for a bit more reassurance. Well, at least she didn't have any particular color fixation. It'd be either green or gold for her, and she'd have time to face the prospect of either one by Hatching day. Unless, of course, there were no eggs, or some kind of mutation like Z'war had spoken of showed up.

The arrival of the harper was surprising. Nebrona didn't like surprises, and she felt her eyes narrow a bit at the man. Why was he intruding on their classes? And that calm, blithe confidence- the only ones who could pull that off were the very innocent (a rare creature, in her opinion) or the very guilty. Just what secrets was this harper hiding?

And then came what Nebrona considered the first truly stupid question of the meeting. Hadn't the bluerider just finished saying what made the dragons choose? People who couldn't be bothered to pay attention irritated her, they really did.

"Isn't a dragon's choice because they find one person's personality more compatible with theirs than any other candidate, like you were just talking about?" She thought aloud, after a brief check to make sure she wouldn't be speaking over Z'war. "But does that mean they're looking for similar personalities, or just one that'll fit well with theirs?" After all, the best of friends could sometimes have the most different personalities, at first glance.

[ShadowReine]

Z'war considered. "First of all, every one of you is here because you have the enhanced sensitivity to dragonkind that makes Impressing a dragon possible. Then, there are certain...patterns...that the different colors follow. You know that golds Impress to women and bronzes, browns and blues to men. There is a very strong tendency for both golds and bronzes to choose riders who are heterosexual. It's less strong in browns. Blues don't seem to care and a lot of blueriders are gay. So are almost all male greenriders. Female greenriders can be any sexuality. We don't know why some gay women don't Impress blues in the same way some gay men Impress green."

He smiled at Nebrona. "And yes. And it varies. There are pairs of which the saying 'like dragon, like rider' is entirely descriptive. Then there are dragonets who choose a rider of a completely opposite personality. But every pairing works. The dragonets know, instinctively, who the best available person for them is. Sometimes, it's not a candidate. Dragons have Impressed to people in the audience, and there are also records of them leaving the Sands to find their rider...usually a candidate who's confined to the infirmary."

[Kisha-Ra]

Zephan sat attentively upright in the middle of the classroom, and, on the back of the chair, so did Stardust. Zephan just hoped the blue wasn’t going to try any of his tricks once he got bored, Zephan didn’t really think the classroom was a good place for Stardust but he had yet to figure out a way of coercing the firelizard to stay behind.

The first question seemed a little silly to Zeph’s mind, Lyeth hadn’t caught the plague and that was what had made the queens infertile, all the riders said so, even the dragonhealers. As for the girl’s second question, where did holdfolk get their ideas? Off the stupid wagon it sometimes seemed, if virgins weren’t allowed on the sands then would one as young as he be sitting in the room right now? Of course not. Unless holders had some kind of rumour about that too.

Now Kaiton’s question was sensible, and intriguing. Zephan leaned forward on his elbows to hear the answer. The gist of Z’war’s reply seemed to be that the odd firelizards were just odd colours, nothing more. It was a shame no one knew whether dragons would come out like that, they were rather pretty and if the mutation wasn’t doing them any harm… Well it was a bit like albino canines really, the same but a different colour.

Stardust squawked and vanished between when the first airborne missile was thrown, Zephan made a note of this, but otherwise ignored the interruption even when a pair of ‘lizards started acting up, pity they didn’t mind the flying paper shapes as much as Star did.

Another round of questions started off, though Zephan paid scant attention to the first as a harper journeyman entered the room and asked a question of his own. That was interesting, Zeph didn’t remember seeing him with the candidates before, but here he was apologising for lateness and asking questions just like he was a candidate. Interesting question too, could be a candidate’s question or a harper’s curiosity.

Well, now the questions were getting a bit more odd, Zephan had never actually wondered why dragons chose as they did, he’d just taken part of the old Weyr faith that dragons always knew, there was just one thing that he wanted to ask now that the topic was in the air. ‘Sir, I’ve never seen it happen, but I’m not very old, so I wanted to know, well, are there really dragonets who can’t find a rider?’


Uureian leaned back in his chair at the rear of the classroom and waited for someone else to start, normally Uureian had no trouble asking questions, often so fast that he never noticed what the answers were. Today, however, his head was whirling faster than any dragon’s eye colours, filled with endless questions about those enigmatic creatures who defended Pern so well.

Lyeth’s fertility didn’t seem to be in question by many of the weyrfolk, though it was the first thing asked about by one of the girls. Did that mean they all had faith in their young queen or just that they didn’t to name an evil and give it more power. In any case he didn’t view it as a politic question so better that a pretty girl ask it and not him. Unless bluerider Z’war didn’t like girls that was. Her other question was just a bit out of line as well, that had to just be some stupid rumour that floated around, he was pretty certain that if they were supposed to have experience they would have been told by now, probably in a humiliating public manner. Adults loved doing that. However it seemed not to be compulsory, all were saved, for a time at least. The answer to the first question ensured that the next few weeks were going to be tense though.

The paper flingers could have picked a better time really, like another lesson. A normal, boring, lesson. Uureian wondered just what was on the first thrown sheet anyway, it certainly had sent that boy an interesting colour, maybe it was a proposition. Uureian shrugged and tried to pay attention to the class. Mutations. Uh, yeah, well he seemed to have missed that part…

Oh, it looked like paper thrower #1 was interested in other girls. Maybe it wasn’t a proposition that made the recipient go all red then. What was the topic again? Never mind. Uureian’s head whipped around to look at the newcomer to the lesson, defiantly a harper, even if the blue clothes and the shoulder knots didn’t give it away the voice did. Breifly Uureian wondered what about harper hall did that.

Uureian pulled his attention back just in time to hear Z’war’s answer, or maybe answers, to two girls. ‘Sir the first thing you said, does that mean that there are some people who couldn’t Impress a dragon at all?’ he blurted out then realised he’d interrupted someone else and shot an apologetic glance that way.