Half Moon Bay Weyr - Living Cavern
Here is the center of Weyr life, the living caverns. These two main rooms were man-shaped from smaller caves, and are joined by a carved arch with depictions of dragons in flight and dolphins leaping in swirling waves. One room has many round stone and wooden tables and a stone fire-pit instead of a hearth. Over the round-walled, gas fired pit is a large conical hood made of polished bronze, with reliefs of dragons with their riders flying over ships guided by dolphins. This hood and chimney keeps the room smoke-free. Through the archway is an enormous hall, with long tables and benches, some carved from the rock floor, many crafted of wood. This room is a combination dining and meeting hall, and can seat over 300 comfortably. Above both rooms, angled shafts lined with polished metal bring in sunlight during the day. Electric lights also burn, day and night.
It's just a little past the mid-day meal and the living cavern is starting to empty out steadily as people go off to tend to their respective duties. And then there are a few who are slowly filtering in - including Aglaia, who looks fairly bedraggled - which is, truly, an understatement for the ages. She shuffles listlessly to a serving table to acquire some manner of foodstuffs, though her eyes are glazed and one might question whether or not she's actually seeing what she's putting on that plate. Then it's off to find a seat with that same sense of seeing-not-seeing, all the while with her mouth moving silently.
Cassara generally prefers to get her meals during the slower times of the day. The large woman sits there, eating her meal when a unattentitive Aglaia places her self right by her. She grins and takes a bite out of a biscuit. "… Well don't you look like hell right now." She says toward Aglaia with a chuckle.
A bleary blink brings Aglaia into the present, right around the time that she realizes just where she's sitting - and that Cassara's talking to her. There's another slow blink while she seems to process the words. "She's-" is followed by an awkward pause while she sifts through her mental thesaurus "-… difficult. Very, very difficult." It's probably the most diplomatic response, though it's just a bit strained. "Was your weyrlinghood a difficult one?"
Cassara can't help but to keep chuckling at the poor, exhausted girl. She puts down the remaining biscuit and grins… or maybe smile? It's hard to tell, somewhere between a sympathetic smile and an cruel, amused smirk. "… Is she now? That's… unfortunate." She shakes her head. "… No. Well, yes… But no, not for the same reasons. Golth and I were… always on the same page." They were… difficult together. "Mm, what's she been putting you through?"
Funny. The chuckling seems to have no effect; even the smile is met with a blank look from the weyrling. Aglaia pokes at her plate of food, but she's clearly not that interested in eating. "I always wondered what happened to my mother," she says after a moment or two. "Now I understand." It's a grim admission, one that comes with no elaboration as she listens, nods, and lapses into a bit of silence to consider Cassara's words. Eventually: "I'd be happier if she and I were in the same book. The same genre, even." Her nose wrinkles. "If we come out of weyrlinghood without destroying everything or alienating all the other weyrlings, it will be a miracle."
Her chuckling stops and her eyebrow raises a bit curiously. "What… happened to your mother?" The older rider frowns a bit and leans back in her chair. "… that much of a handful, eh…? Maybe she'll grow out of it… Some can be a real handful when they're young…" Though from the look on Aglaia's face, she figures it's definitely more than that.
"She… had a pretty bad time of things after she Impressed." Aglaia's hedging is paired with the pushing of her plate away for the time being. "That's why I ended up living with my dad." She shifts uncomfortably in her chair, eyes momentarily glossed before a blink brings her back. "I can only hope she will. Or, at least… turn it all into something constructive. She's smart and she's good at pushing buttons. Too good." She worries her lower lip. "Right now, though, it's- it's hard. Once things settle out, it'll be easier." She hopes. "Anyway. Um. What's Golth like?"
Cassara nods and wonders to her self if something in Aglaia's blood made them attractive to crazy dragons. "You really can't do anything else. But… It almost always get better." She grins. "Maybe not quite to where you want it, but it'll get better." She leans back in her chair, thinking a bit. "Golth is… dour." she grins. "… Kinda cranky, really… patient. Patient and calculating." She chuckles. "… But we're more… cranky together than cranky with each other… and his patience helps when mine runs out. During my weyrlinghood we acted like it us verses the world… and, well… got into a lot of trouble for it."
Of course, if Cassara knew anything about Zaqalekhth - well. "I hope so," Aggie replies, though she briefly pinches the bridge of her nose. "I really, really, hope you're right." While Cassara speaks, she finally pulls the plate closer so she can nibble on this or that, but it's without any real enthusiasm. There's a singular, shallow nod here or there at the description - and, at the end, she offers a lopsided smile that's slow to manifest. "He sounds like a good guy," she decides. "Even if you did get in trouble a lot."
She hoped she was too, looking at the woman. So much for teasing the weyrlings all the time. "Golth is… a good fit for me. I couldn't imagine impressing any other dragon. He's not alwyas reasonable, but… neither am I and we kinda get that. As for yours… Well, think of it like a kid… They might start a button pusher and grow up to be quite different… Though some of that personality usually remains." She shrugs. Or Aglaia could be stuck with a nightmare dragon her whole life. "What kind of of trouble is she getting you into…?"
"They keep saying that," Aglaia replies, "but… it doesn't feel like it'll ever ease up." Then again, they're scarcely more than two months in, but sleep deprivation and other factors are clearly distorting everything for her. Her head dips into another nod, mouth pulled thoughtfully to one side. The question takes a moment for her to consider, before: "Just… everything. She's been in confrontations with Czaiath about who owns what, she's terrorized poor Booth, and she's in the habit of breaking things when she thinks no one's looking." She grimaces. "Basically, she thinks everything is hers - and, if it isn't, she'll destroy it."
Aglaia and Cassara are havinga meal late midday and Aglaia looks like she hasn't slept in forever. "… It can take awhile. And people and dragons still change even when they're fully grown. It might just take awhile." She cracks a bit of a hopeful smile. "… Damn. No wonder you're such a mess." she crosses her arms and bites her lip in thought. "… How is she with you, though…?"
The weyrling continues to pick at her food, but it's more moving things around than actually eating at this point. "We'll see, I guess. Dad told me that his dragon never… settled down, so to speak. Zaqalekhth now is pretty much as he was." And the shudder that trips down her spine should say plenty. "I hope she's not like that. I- anyway. She's… mostly fine with me. Mostly. She just needs motivation to behave, that's all." And, oh, how diplomatic those words are.
D'nyl looks tired around the edges, but not as bad as Aglaia by far, as he trudges into the living caverns and heads for the buffet line, not really sure what time of day it is or who's there, just glad for the moment's peace to start piling wherry and tubers on his plate.
Cassara shrugs. "… Golth hasn't changed much either. Well, I guess we're both a bit less… bitter and angry." A little in their minds, but a lot to better to those who had to deal with them. "… You can find ways to help control her. Again, it's not that much different from people We don't necessarily fundementally change, we… find ways to cope with what's shitty about us." She gives D'nyl a bit of a wave when he gets off the buffet line.
To which Aglaia can only nod, her thoughts twisting inward for a little while. It may or may not help that her other half is starting to stir from her slumber. "Bribing seems to work," she finally says, before she finally forces herself to eat -something- on her plate. Cassara's wave draws her attention and she half-turns, raising a hand as well to wiggle her fingers at her fellow weyrling. Then it's right back to eating with a troubled and thoughtful expression on her face.
D'nyl grunts in his throat, shuffling towards the other two and settling at their table, setting into his food with a gusto, getting through several bites before he clears his throat enough to murmur, "Isn' bribin' kinda like rewardin' her fer misbehavin'?"
"Yeah, but you need to get your foot in the door sometmes. Establish a little bit of control then cut back. You got nothing if you have no bargaining position though." She shrugs. "… It can be tricky, but… in a lot of situations where someone takes bribes, they start off feeling like they have the power… but soon its the briber who ends up in control."
"If you can think of a better way to get her to stop breaking things or demanding that others do her bidding, I'm all ears," is Aglaia's flatly uttered reply to D'nyl. There's a nod to Cassara and she settles back a bit to add, "I can only take so much away to prove a point. It'd be different if we were in our own weyr with our own things - but we aren't. Yelling doesn't work. Asking her to do something out of the kindness of her hearts -definitely- doesn't work. Telling her that she'll get an extra claw-washing if she stops teasing Booth for the next sevenday? That works. Especially when she forgets and I remind her of our deal and just… don't tell her the deal expired a sevenday ago."
D'nyl shrugs slightly, "I dunno, she ain' my dragon. 'M havin' a hard enough time keepin' Czaiath from tryin' ta switch cots all th' time 'n' demandin' special oil 'n' such. 'N', of course, Sunny wants ta spoil him, which isn' helpin'. 'M jus' gla' when he 'n' Valigoth aren' fightin', hones'ly." He shuts himself up with more tubers, omnomnom.
"… Well thats one thing. Getting your own weyr will help." … Though if she gets her own Weyr? That might be scary. And very possible. "Well, at least you got some sort of a plan though…" She chuckles at D'nyl. Czaiath sounded like a little bit of a handful too, but after a conversation about Valigoth…
"Seriously." Aglaia winces a little at something or another and continues, "The plan only works to a degree. It's not great, obviously - and when it comes to Czaiath, everything goes out of the window." She slants a look to D'nyl, one that's deeply sympathetic. "That sounds… really bad. The cot-moving and spoiling and all. Just don't let Valigath catch wind that he's getting special oil - I mean, if he is. You know exactly what she'll do with it." There's a slight shake of her head. "I think she's calming a little bit, but- it's slow going." And the two are probably going to keep fighting -until- they get their own respective spaces.
"He's no'. No' yet, at leas'." D'nyl washes some food down with klah, then sighs gently, "The whole thing's jus'… insane. I keep hopin' they'll grow out of it, but…" He shrugs and stuffs his face with more roast wherry, "Suppose at this poin' I'll jus' be glad when they can star' huntin' fer themselves so I don' hafta listen ta th' platitudes abou' how th' meat's not 'the bes''."
And Faranth help them if Czaiath ever catches Valigoth.
Cassara frowns at the two. "… What a nightmare. They're both spoiled rotten." She laugh a bit. "… You two got a long road to your own weyrs, but it'll help, I swear." She sighs and finishes off her food.
"Oh, no. No. I do not want to see her hunting ever." And if Aglaia goes pale at the very thought, so be it. "You've seen what she does to meat chunks." Wherries? Just bigger chunks of meat to be flattened with grisly delight. Horror continues to write itself on her face as -that- thought plays out though, eventually, she's able to resume poking at her plate again. "It's- I don't know. I really don't know." That lame conclusion comes right about the time that a certain gold is rising from her slumber. "Drat." A pause. "-Double- drat. I need to go." Before Valigath starts raising her mental and physical voices in loud protest, ideally.
D'nyl blinks, then shudders at the thought of pounded wherry, "Fair 'nuff. I jus' know Czaiath'll be happier when he can pick his own meals." He glances at Cassara, then shrugs, "I'm tryin' ta keep him in line, but he's rather… opinionated." Aglaia's expletive makes him pause a moment, checking on his own picky lifemate, "Good luck with tha'."
Cassara gives Aglaia a grim look. She gives the weyrling a pat on the arm. "… Good luck, kid." She grins a bit and lets her head back before looking back at D'nyl. "… Bronzes tend to be. I think that arrogance streak is what tends to… infect their riders."
"I'll need it," Aggie tosses back to D'nyl, along with a strained smile. That smile is shared to Cassara as well for the pat on her arm. "Best of luck with yours, too," is more for her fellow weyrling than the brownrider, but still. "I'll try to get her calmed down before anything stupid happens." And, with that, she's quick to get her things together and take the dirty dishes away before hastening for the barracks. Will she make it? Won't she? The odds are definitely not in her favor!