==== October 24, 2013
==== Donatien, Kaia, Br'er
==== A weyrling, a weaver and a wingrider chat in the baths.

Who Donatien, Kaia, Br'er
What A weyrling, a weaver and a wingrider chat in the baths.
When Ten months and 24 days until the 12th Pass
Where Baths

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Baths
The steamy fog of the baths could be an entirely different world, transitioning from the well-lit brilliance of the inner caverns: a different world entirely, one wrought in dreams and humid fog. Steam lifts from hot waters, obscuring those who bathe within, drenching any who dare enter. Well-maintained, well-stocked, the baths offer pre-netted portions of soapsand in various scents, fluffy towels in orderly rows, and five separate spring-fed pools, all of differing temperature: from scorching hot to soothing chill.


Kaia is nervous. More nervous than usual. It's her first time being apart from her lifemate since the hatching. Which means she's really, really in need of a bath. Having slipped out while Salanaith was asleep, she has found an otherwise empty pool to soak and scrub in. She tries to relax as she suds up her hair, but can't help looking a little anxious.

It's raining, it's pouring, this old man is… limping like it's going out of style. Donatien makes his way into the baths slowly, a bottle of something clear in one hand, a towel in the other. Today, there's no standing on ceremony - Dien drops towel and trous on a convenient bench, takes bottle and soapsand to the edge of a pool, and slowly lowers himself in. Once in, though, the Weaver slowly starts to relax, uncorking his bottle for a swig and looks around. Oh look, it's the once-named Kapia: "Hello there, young green-rider," he says.

And here's a veteran greenrider to round out the group. It's not common to see Br'er at the public baths (he's got friends in high places, with private baths), but it does occasionally happen. Case in point: tonight. He's padding over to take a spot in the water, obliviously naked in that longtime-Weyr-resident sort of way. Donatien is nodded at, as one man might politely greet another, but he too is soon distracted by Kaia's presence, and her obvious anxiety. With the ease of an elder rider, he diagnoses the problem, and offers a: "She'll be fine. Relax." And then, amicably and to both of them, he adds a, "Good evening."

Kaia is so caught up in her worrying that she doesn't even notice the Weaver until he's right there in the pool with her. She blinks, startled. "Oh! Uhm. Hello there." She greets with a nervous little smile. "I'm sorry I never came to get new clothes and sandals. The eggs hatched, and since then I've been… well. My whole life is different!" When a much more senior greenrider offers words of encouragement she is surprised, but does seem to relax a little. "I just… I've never left her alone like this! Thank goodness she seems to be sleeping soundly…"

Donatien waves the un-en-bottled hand, "No worries, Kapi… Or, Kaia, I suppose." The entry of Br'er into the conversation gets a look over and nod of greeting, "Good evening," though there's a sardonic edge to the word 'good'. Dien grins, though and takes a drink, sitting back while one rider reassures another; he's been around but this is not his forte. In any case, he waits until Kaia seems to relax and then offers, "It's been a busy time. And you'll need clothes and shoes sometime." Like hip-waders, right now. To Br'er, Dien says, "I'm Donatien, almost-newly arrived Weaver, except I've been here for a while."

"It's hard, isn't it?" Br'er offers, not unsympathetic. "I remember that. Inlayraith was so tiny, too — I remember wondering if I could just put her in a wheelbarrow and bring her with." He's reached for the soap before he adds, sudsily, "Didn't actually try it, don't know if it would actually work, so don't get any ideas." Donatien's manners spark a belated show of the rider's own, a soapy wave accompanied by a, "Well met. Br'er, green Inlayraith's. You've probably seen her, she's the green who always looks like something's about to eat her." Said disparaging, but with a subtle note of wry affection underneath.

Kapia gives Donatien an almost sheepish sort of smile, still working the suds with her fingers. "Well, uhm, we have to wear the uniforms until we graduate, so, I'm a little stuck until then. But afterwards!" She gives Br'er another little smile, pondering for a moment. Would that wheelbarrow idea actually work? No, definitely not. She shakes her head, then smiles again. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Kaia. Salanaith's." She's still not used to that.

Donatien closes his bottle, resting it close to the edge of the pool and starts to foam up some soapsand, "That should be in about a Turn or so, if I remember other Weyrs' schedules correctly," he guesses, scrubbing one arm and then the other, "My custom will of course, be waiting." A moment while Dien concentrates on getting clean before he says in polite tones, "Salanaith. What a lovely name." Br'er gets a wry little grin, "On the smaller side, then?" Still, he ventures while leaning back into the pool again, "How are the new dragonets coping with the rain? And is the rain always this relentless?"

"One of the smallest in the Weyr," says Br'er, drily. "Excepting the weyrlings, of course. Nice to have them around. Gives me less of a complex." He lapses into a busy silence thereafter, preoccupied with the matter of his hair — the washing of which apparently involves more care than most people would give to major surgery. Though he does muster up the spare braincells to add, "Salanaith. She was the dappled looking one, right? I remember that name, it is pretty."

"Salanaith is on the smaller side too." Kaia has a distinctly dreamy tone as she talks about her lifemate, smiling and staring off into the distance. She sinks under the water a moment to rinse her hair, pulling it back from her face once she re-emerges. "Yes, that's her." She answers Br'er proudly. "She's very pretty."

Donatien chuckles and nods, "I think I've seen her then. A lovely little green," because it never does to insult a rider's lifemate. Cleaning having been seemingly put on hold so Dien can grab the bottle and take another sip. Kaia's tone gets an arched eyebrow and a little grin from the Weaver, and he says, "She was one of the first who Hatched, right?" Dien then becomes distracted, watching Br'er's hair-cleaning routine with fascination, giving him to comment, "Maybe if I'd taken as much care with mine, I'd still have some." One finger unnecessarily points to his own bald head.

"Going bald is one of my greatest fears," replies Br'er, doing nothing to dispel certain stereotypes about greenriders. Or possibly he's joking — it's actually kind of hard to tell. He's still washing his hair, anyway: he's on the scalp-massage stage. "And you're right," this last to Kaia, "she's lovely." There's a faint undertone of humor to this: because, really, what weyrling is ever going to be told otherwise about their brand-new lifemate? Like telling a new mother she's got one hell of an ugly baby. "Dhiammarath had a fine looking clutch. The lot of you settling in alright?

"… I miss my hair, too." Kaia says with a slightly forlorn frown, glancing up at her much shorter hairdo she sports at the moment. The sacrifices one makes as a weyrling. Sigh. She resumes scrubbing at her skin. "She was the first one to hatch. First one to Impress." She confirms to Donatien. "In retrospect, I kind of wish I'd gotten to see the rest of the hatching. But in that moment I was just so overwhelmed…" She looks to Br'er, smiling a little. "I think so. Some are handling it better than others."

The benefits of being bald are highly under-rated: "It's not so bad," Dien tells Br'er, "I've found the ladies love it." You know, if you dig the ladies. He looks over at Kaia with a knowing grin, splishing a finger of water in her direction, "Yours will grow back, at least." He hasn't much to say on the actual Impression part of Impressing, but Dien does wonder, "Do their feet get problems from wandering around in the rain too much? Like with runners?" Food for thought. Or, drink for thought, as he sips.

"For some men, maybe. I have a lumpy skull," grouses Br'er, who - given that he is JUST NOW finishing with washing his hair - is probably a legit expert in the precise shape of his noggin. "And, good," he tells Kaia, serene. "Ja'kai seems to know what he's doing. Nice to see a greenrider in the position." Not like at SOME Weyrs, which is to say, all the other ones. To Donatien he adds, idly washing behind one ear, "Inlayraith never had anything like that. She got a few bad skin cracks during winter, but that was at High Reaches. It was cold."

As the talk turns to feet, Kaia sets about scrubbing her own, lifting a leg out of the bathwater to clean properly. "I know. But it'll take forever. I'll be even plainer than usual until then." A self-pitying sigh follows. She looks to Br'er and nods a little. "Yeah, he's a great teacher. We're very lucky to have him."

Donatien chuckles at Br'er's plaint, shaking his own balding pate, and his mouth opens to say something before eyes slide to Kaia, and said mouth closes into an overly polite smile. Nothing to hear here, occifer. He knows nothing of Ja'kai (yet) but nods idly, "High Reaches… I'm always thankful I was never posted there for that very reason." He sits, reminiscing for a moment and then, "Well, hopefully we won't have to start learning to breathe like fish anytime soon." He too sighs, but it's tempered by a self-amused grin, "Or dolphins."

Donatien might have nothing to say, but Br'er will still take it as read: greenrider tosses Weaver a glance of mock-scandal. And then moves on to scrubbing his back, because, well, cleanliness is important. Wash ALL the things! "It's not all bad. The summers here are too fu - " Delicate weyrling ears! Abort, abort! "- sharding hot. I miss that about Reaches. Though it's been turns since I lived there, anyway." Scrub scrub scrub.

Kaia may be a little young, but she's actually among the older weyrlings. She's almost certainly heard the word in question before. Not that it stops her from turning a little red. Time to clean the other foot. "… I like the hot weather." She says quietly. "It's one of the things that made me want to stay here."

Donatien, in response, sees Br'er's mock-scandal and antes an innocent look. Who, me? And because there's mischief in his eye, Dien points out, "You missed a spot," as Br'er moves on to another portion to clean. Not that he's watching. Well, maybe just to tease. Anyways, "I always heard High Reaches was quite…" how does one say this politely, "Structured there?" Implication in the form of a question, but Dien turns to give
Kaia a grin, "Me too, though," a slightly exasperated look to the ceiling of the baths or beyond, "Nothing prepared me for the rains."

Br'er, doing yet more of absolutely nothing to dispel certain stereotypes, only smirks and raises an eyebrow. "Thanks." Scrub, scrub (he totally got the spot, this time). An eyeroll follows their mutual confessions of heat loving. "Ugh. You'd love Igen, then. As for Reaches -" just the tiniest of subtle hesitations, the faintest stirring at the top of some deep, deep pool of Issues, "- you heard right." He pauses momentarily in his ablutions, then continues, brisk. "Young Kaia here is lucky to be a Southern weyrling."

"I really am. Rain or no rain." Kaia says with a happy little smile as she finishes her scrubbing. She leans back to relax, but then suddenly sits bolt upright. "… Sal's awake. Gotta go." In a near panic she dashes from the bath, hurriedly drying and dressing before scrambling away. "Bye! Have a good evening!" She calls back.

Donatien nods thoughtfully at Br'er's reluctant admission, but doesn't ask anything further. Kaia's sudden leap from the baths gets a raised eyebrow and he chuckles, "At least she remembered to put on clothes," he tells the older greenrider, and mentions, "Every Hatching I've seen, at least someone forgets to dress while harkening to their dragonet's call." This thought is full of amusement for Dien, and he takes a sip of his bottle. A little sigh as the Weaver leans back, arms spread over the lip of the baths, and mostly silence falls over the room. Except: "Missed another spot."

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