Difference between revisions of "Logs:Egg-Watching, Convict-Style"

Xeoshen shrugs. "I aint sayin' you gotta dress like me, but we don't exactly get paid ta work, we take what we get." He says a bit curtly. Beggars can't be choosers after all. "And I still aint got money to buy any clothes." He adds truthfully. "So, why bother?" He says, and leans back in the bench. Oh yes, give them more to look at, why not? He'd take off his shirt if it wasn't so cold outside.

Warucori lets out a soft sigh and gets to her feet, "As much as I'd love to stay, I should go and check on my auntie before I do evening chores." For all the time she's been out there, she's not even oggled the eggs--if anyone was paying attention to notice that. "See you all at turndown I'm sure."

It is a furtive Taikrin indeed who has found her way into the cavern today. Her jacket -- oddly ripped in the back -- is pulled around her tightly, the collar flipped up in an apparent attempt at anonymity. Dark gaze is fixed quite firmly on first the ground before her, then, as she summits the stairs, at the eggs just on the other side of the railing. And there she remains, hands gripping tightly to the railing, attention fixated on the sands as though her life depended on it. She's not even noticed there are others in the cavern, yet, much less others with whom she is acquainted.

Warucori heads down a short set of stairs to the bowl. Warucori has left.

Eldena looks up in her slow circles around the group to see the other young woman look at the eggs. "Enjoying the view?" she asks politely. She glances to the chattering group, and then bakc to Taikrin.

No, Saliqa is definitely /not/ staring at Xeoshen while he goes on display; she only glances over her shoulder briefly to acknowledge his existence while she opines, "Because it's good to look to a future where you can make something of yourself again." Her stuttering hesitance is only building vaguely towards her old confidence when her girl buddy gets up to leave. "Oh! Warucori! We'll speak again soon..." Head turned to watch where the other goes, she misses the corresponding entrance, so, when she decides to look away, it's back to Xeoshen. Sort of. Those eggs are mighty nice to look at, too.

Xeoshen Waves to Warucori as she leaves. "See ya around." He remarks after her, before he looks to Saliqa. "Yeah, well, if ya wanna buy me clothes, go ahead, just don't be expectin' them ta stay clean fer long." He says, waving a hand, and looks toward those eggs. "Wonder if the beings in them things know they might be givin' freedom ta some people." He asks, more to himself, though loud enough to hear. He does catch Taikrin out of the corner of his eye. "'ey, they letcha off duty for a while, already?"

Taikrin jumps as though goosed as Eldena addresses her, whirling about so that her back is pressed against the railing. "I got /just/ as much... right..." She begins with a heated defense, and slowly petters out once Eldena is spotted and given a quick once-over. "... uh. Yeah." A hint of color stains her dirt-smeared cheeks, and her voice drops to a mumble. "Yeah, it's fine and all." Xeoshen's attention only seems to make the matter worse. Arms wind tighter across her chest, apparently in an attempt to mask the betraying white knot. "Uh, somethin' like that. Oi, Xeo." Beat. "Saliqa."

"You know, you're not actually supposed to wear the nice clothes /all/ the time," Saliqa remarks, rolling her eyes from eggs to Xeoshen then back again. She has no such know-it-all comment about what's behind those shells, however, and only works her teeth over her lip to cover for it. Something's itching at her, even though she's not one of those looking for freedom - at least, not like that. Greetings going out to some other person, and then her own name, beckon a glance in Taikrin's direction. The concerned look on her face evens and then goes a touch curious. "Taikrin, hello." A small pause, then, "Are you going to join us?"

Xeoshen raises an eyebrow at Saliqa. "Really? Seems ta me that people wear fancy clothes often enough." He says to her. "Will keep thart in mind, though it would be nice ta have some clean clothes atleast." Even if their clothes probably get washed often, since they got to the Weyr. He looks to Taikrin, and raises an eyebrow. "Right, where's yer guard?" He asks her, and looks to the guard who's with his group, they never go without the guards, right? "Yeah, why not join us, in escaping the weather." He says, and looks back to the women.

"Sent me over here, they did," Taikrin admits grudgingly. Her steps are gallows-slow as she mounts the stairs towards the other two, her posture reeking of caution. "Said I might as well get a look, like, an' there'd be someone here." The guard is acknowledged with the barest flick of her gaze, then dismissed. "Maybe just fer a minute. Weren't gettin' nothing good done, anyways."

Perhaps it's the return of that tunnel vision, but Saliqa has only a keenly interested air in the face of the female convict's suggestions. "Might as well?" She expresses wryly, "That almost sounds like they're resigned to the idea of somebody nabbing one." Her hand waves hurriedly in Xeoshen's direction and, by proxy, those other convict-candidates grouped near him, "Not that I'm... saying that's what you're do-- I shouldn't have said anything at all." Pulling her legs closer, she heaps herself up in the seat, full skirts billowing out around her feet. "You'll need the clothes," she attempts, "Should one of those down there sniff you out, or however it is they do these things."

Xeoshen snorts. "'ey, considering that as candidates, we get a little more freedom, then we do as convicts." He says, and nods to Saliqa. "Yeah well, if ya can get me some clothes, or where I can get some without somebody callin' me a thief, let me know." The guard simply nods to Taikrin as well, but leaves her be for now. "Yeah, if, and a big if too, there's only so many eggs, ya know." He remarks.

"Think they might be gettin' used ta'it," Taikrin allows, her tone still uncertain. "It still stealin' if they're puttin', uh, people out there voluntary-like?" Eyebrows draw together, uncertainty giving way to outright confusion. "Why's Xeo need clothes? Ain't everyone got t'go out there lookin' the same? Don't think a hatchling cares 'bout what yer wearin' or yer- yer smell?!" The tone of her voice shades upwards with disbelief. "Ain't it the dam what tells 'em where t'go, anyways? She ain't gonna be steerin' 'em our way, promise you that."

"But a less of one, by merit that you'll be out there," she offers, Saliqa weighing this one visibly in her head after, but not going back on it. Instead, she plants her hands on the bench and adjusts herself to sit more towards Taikrin-- all the better to watch her as she speaks. "I said 'should', so what I mean is, afterwards. If it happens. Everyone goes out there looking the same, at least, but they don't all leave that way. And, I'm not sure I understand what the queen's got to do with it. If it were her job to steer 'em, as you say, wouldn't she just go about picking all the candidates she liked? Seems a heap less roundabout. I'm almost positive someone said the babies hunt you out. And that sounds like sniffing. Like canines who go out with the men, right?" Right? Menfolk? Xeoshen?

Xeoshen nods in agreement to Taikrin. "Well, what can they do? I mean it aint like we're makin' the dragons search us or nothin'." He remarks, and then pauses, waaaiiiitttt. "You got /searched/?" He asks Taikrin with a blinks, and laughs. "I thought ya hated the idea." He remarks, and shrugs. "I heard the dragons choose ya, not their dam, if the queen was the one pickin' people for her babies, she'd be the one sniffing us ta stand, not the other dragons." He agrees, and looks out at said queen on the sands. "I dunno, do I look like ever been ta a hatchin' before?" He asks Saliqa. "I still wonder how they pick anybody, when they aint met them before."

Taikrin props legs up onto the bench in front of her, allowing her to remain with arms loosely folded across her chest-- though more comfortably, now. "Dunno, just what I heard. That th' dam gets final say on what people end up with what hatchling. Pretty sure they don't go sniffin' around like canines, though." Xeoshen's announcement brings a flush of ruddy color back to Taikrin's cheeks once more, though she endeavors to keep her voice above a mumble, this time. "Uh. Guess so. Last night." Her gaze slides towards Saliqa, then jerks away to focus fixedly on the sands instead. "Figured, you know, maybe might keep all that food comin', after I get released. Six more sevendays, you know? Warm bed, free food... could be worse." A pause, then, as a note of befuddlement enters her voice. "Uh. You know when they're supposed t'hatch, anyways? Nobody told me. Didn't think t'ask, before."

It takes the observation from the other in combination with that shifty look at her before Saliqa's jaw sinks down in realization. "Oh!" She exhales, an exclamatory noise free of any kind of emotion either way; that's a skill. For a few more seconds after that, she attempts a maneuver of leaning to the side and pinning down Taikrin's gaze, but constant failure pulls her away. "Six sevendays isn't so very long..." Is her dejected addendum. "I suppose not," she offers, instead, to Xeoshen as she slides back against the seat behind her to be able to eye him once more. "Just seems to be what... they /do/. Although, I've heard some-- umm. Nevermind. What's that, when? Oh, I suppose I have no idea... Honestly, I haven't a single notion how this all goes. We're all on even ground there." And she raises a hand and cuts it across the air in a straight line. Even.

Xeoshen nods. "Aye, six seven days aint long at all." He agrees, and eyes Saliqa. "Ya've heard what?" He asks her, as he peers at her. "Some kinda secret information we aint supposed to know, or somethin'?" He asks her, and then looks to Taikrin. "Really? Huh, I got searched earlier yesterday, like at dinner time. Uh, congrats to you then." He says. "So, for this hatchin', ya think they'll have guards tagging with us." He hooks a thumb in the guards direction. "Or let us go out there on our own?" His tone implies he thinks it'll be something more toward the first option, after all, this is pretty much a new thing for everybody, have there ever been criminal candidates before? He snorts, though. "I still say they'll have candidates like her." He motions at Saliqa. "On one side of the sands, and us on another, or behind them or something." After all, less chance of them impressing, right?

Taikrin is not completely oblivious to Saliqa's maneuvering; eventually a hooded gaze slides back towards the other girl, her face a mask of wariness still. "Suppose we might be, maybe. Think they're gonna honor our release dates? Or we gonna be wandering around under guard pretty much forever?" As neither of the other two candidates seems to be outright mocking her, some of the tension slowly drains out of Taikrin's thin frame. "Bronzerider got me pretty late, way after dinner; we was finishin' up that spot of repair on late detail." A measuring pause, then: "Prob'bly they'd be right t'put them first. They ain't never gonna think of us as nothin' but slime, even if we're here ten turns and all bronzeriders besides." Now /that/ would be an interesting feat...

"It's not /secret/," Saliqa insists, "I just don't... /like/ spreading stories around. Please, ignore it." She wiggles the tips of her fingers at him: shoo, shoo. "They should indeed honor, it's the right thing do. You'll have worked for it and being asked to Stand, it's... an honor, itself, right? Them gets asked is them got potential or something." Her peppy attempt at a motivational speech falters and dies, her hands curling up in her lap sheepishly. "Suppose they'd have to Search some guards, too, but that would sort of be defeating the purpose of what I just said..." She spends some time puzzling this out, her mouth pulled to the side, and some of her attention remains there, so that her next comment is rather absently spoken, "Segregation on the sands might be for the best, but discrimination turns after is silly. Everyone deserves another chance."

Xeoshen shrugs. "'ey, most of us are gonna be at the end of our sentences after this anyway not like they'd have a reason ta keep us after we're done." He shrugs. "Ya know, maybe we oughtta use this like a restart? Maybe people'll make us look better." He remarks, and shrugs. "We been segregrated everywhere else since we arrived 'ere, why should standin' out there be any different?" Right? Right, it only makes sense. He shrugs to Saliqa. "Probably aint stories I heard before." He says. "I had heard a rumor, though. that if we do impress, our sentences, no matter how much longer they are, are basically eliminated." He gives a snort of disbelief though.

"I dunno," Taikrin draws out into a sigh. "Still kinda sure that bronzerider's laughin' at me. I keep expectin' him t'jump out an' tell me it was all a big joke an' just /look/ at how many marks he won on the gullible criminal." Thick brows draw together into the beginnings of a glower. "Pretty sure they ain't gonna see it that way, like a second chance. Pretty sure they're gonna start how they intend t'continue. We came in different, we're still different, an' we're gonna stay different. Only this time, I bet half o'Pern's gonna know who we are. Ain't gonna be able t'get honest work after this."

"Eliminated?" By the scrunching of her nose towards her equally pulled eyebrows, Saliqa isn't all into that idea, not completely. Though she sucks in a preparatory breath, something in what Taikrin is saying causes her to huff it back out again with not a single negative retort. To fill the time, she stretches her legs out and daintily crosses one ankle over the other. "You're awfully negative about it all," she pipes up after a bit, quieter, more cautious than her usual, "With a lot of things to say about how everyone will react this or that way. I'm fairly certain you haven't met everyone there is to meet... maybe you could try, oh, using this as a positive change."

"I seen the attitude up at the top," Taikrin counters Saliqa quickly enough. Her embarrasment, it seems, has finally eroded away. "Ain't too kindly. Can't count on them bein' generous, it ain't safe t' assume." A long sigh escapes, just as Taikrin shakes her wildly sheared head. "It ain't so easy. I done stuff they don't look kindly on. We all did. Folk don't forget that sort of thing." A pause, then, with an odd look to Saliqa: "'Least, most don't."

Saliqa's hand pops up, offering palm top towards the other female, "See, 'most' is not all." Staring off in front of her, she appears to have missed or ignored that odd look there and so doesn't return it nor react to any pointedness. "I wasn't saying it was easy, either, but at least you're looking at it as something to do. You know, be out and about with everyone else," in this she includes a glance over at Xeoshen to group him in that evaluation. "Anyway, look," she threads her fingers through her knot and gives it a tug, "We have something in common now. Will you consider sitting down and telling me something about yourself? It can be anything. You choose."

Xeoshen shrugs at Saliqa. "Tha's what I heard, probably just some stupid rumor ta get our hopes up anyway, just so they can come crashin' down when it doesn't turn out that way." He says. "I aint assumin' nothin', after all, aint we like the first criminals ta ever stand fer a clutch before, or somethin'? They probably won't go that easy on us." He snorts. "Aye, I dun think it'll be easy either, but, ya know, there are people here that like us, like Saliqa here."

"Ain't all," Taikrin allows grudgingly, "But it's /most/, and especially the ones what got power t'do somethin' about it." She considers Xeoshen for a moment, eyebrows twitching together with a sudden thought. "You know, it ain't possible we're the /first/ /ever/ people what did some crime and ended up standing, is it? Maybe we're first who're still doin' time, but..." Head is shaken a final time, and her attention returns to Saliqa. Confusion returns to the fore at the girl's interest, and she takes a good, long second to think before responding. "But... what could y'possibly want to know? Ain't nothin' that interesting, really.""

At being pointed out thusly, Saliqa's gaze darts to Xeoshen, to the group of convicts lounging beyond him, and then to that guard ever hovering, as if she's having some crowning realization that she is, in fact, surrounded by criminals. It only causes conflict in her expression briefly before she schools it away to wherever rejected emotions go. "The Weyr's very... open. I find. Seems to me, marks to meatballs, one or two's got something they had to serve punishment for. But the sentence is really the thing, isn't it. Everyone's got to do what work they deserve. Only right and all, I mean..." Feeling the rambling quality of her words, she kneads her lips together and, clearing her throat, returns to blinking widely at Taikrin while the decision to respond is made. After all of it, she only tilts her head challengingly. "Try me."

Xeoshen nods. "Aye, that's true, but obviously somethin' change their minds about lettin' us stand, or else we wouldna be here in the first place." He says in reply. "Eh, true, but probably the first to still be sentenced." He agrees, a bit begrudgingly with Taikrin, and then nods to Saliqa. "Obvviously, or we woulda been kicked out of the weyr, a long time ago." Hee smirks. "I can't complain though, thaat I'm sleepin' in a nice warm barracks, on somethin' besides just a matress, and blanket." Nice little upgrade, indeed.

Taikrin can do nothing but grumble in the face of her companion's optimism: "Still pretty sure someone's gonna come and tell us it's all a big joke. Any minute now." It'll take more than a day for the sudden change in prospects to really sink in, apparently. "Almost done either way, I guess. Just about two turns, now." Saliqa's challenge is met with a hint of exhasperation. "Shards, I dunno, what d'you want t'know? I like playin' dice? I got a coupl'a little sisters? I'm real good with a pickaxe?"

Saliqa watches the female convict steadily for several seconds after her answers. Then, smacking her lips together in satisfaction, she declares, "Oh, that works. Thank you for sharing with me." The bright peppy look is gone the moment she swivels to eye Xeoshen, though. Not that she's entirely unfriendly, there's just a critical, wary edge to the way she narrows her eyes towards him. "S'long as you're using the time for improvement and work, of course, not just taking it to slack off. That'd be the shame, it would."

Xeoshen nods to Taikrin. "Good a reason as any, ta enjoy it while we can." He says to her, cause, you know, she's right to a point, wouldn't that just be their luck? They did it to get their guard down. He turns to Saliqa. "Slackin' off? Hardly, aparently they aint got us doin' normal candidate chore, they got us still doin' what were was doin' before we were searched, so it aint like everythin's changed."

"Are you serious?!" Taikrin blanks at Saliqa, still more than a little baffled by the other girl. "You really-- huh. Kay." A sigh is given, then she slowly rises to her feet. "Speakin' of work, I should prolly get back t'the ol' pickaxe. Didn't say I could take /all/ afternoon off, rain or no rain." She takes a few steps back towards the stairs, then pauses, half-turning towards the group again. "Uh, guess I'll see y'all back at the barracks tonight. Huh." And thus she heads down the stairs and back out into the bowl, shaking her head all the while.