The living caverns are just starting their early morning bustle as the sun rises outside and one young Igenite candidate has pulled the short straw for chores today. Xanthee is here, eyes half closed, her motions slow and sluggish as she is sweeping the floor. Well sweeping is an overstatement, she seems to be merely pushing dirt around without any rhyme or reason. Wearing a knee length tunic, with her hair in a very messy bun that seems to be the only way to combat the humidity's effect on it. At one point she stops sweeping, and just stands there, leaning on her broom, eye fluttering closed as her head droops slowly.

Z'bor has been awake for some time now, having completed the morning's sweeps and PT. Now however, he's starving and he hadn't had a chance to eat yet this morning, already having missed breakfast at his weyr. They start early in the realm of Z'bor and H'ris, really early. The green riding wingsecond strolls into the caverns as fresh and full of energy as a newly hatched dragon.It's straight to the side board for this one, where he fills a plate and then some along with a steaming cup of klah. He's set to be on his merry way, to sit at a table and gorge on food, that is, until he spots a white knot, and her not so awake state. Walking up behind the girl, quiet as a feline, Z'bor waits until he is just shy of bumping into her to speak. "You should be glad the headwoman isn't here. She skins candidates who can't stay awake on the job." And he says this loudly. He has no idea if the headwoman would actually skin a candidate, but the threat is a good one.

Well that was completely unnecessary. At the loud admonition from the greenrider, Xanthee's eyes snap open as she lets go of the broom and it goes clattering to the floor which makes her jump and squeak. As she focuses on the source of the voice, she spies a wingsecond knot and snaps a salute so hard she hits herself in the eyes. As she is rubbing the affected area she looks at Z'bor through the tears. "Sorry Sir. Won't do it again. Just not getting much sleep in this heat." she says sheepishly as she goes to retrieve the fallen broom and continue on in her task for a second before she looks around and realizes she doesn't even have a dust pan.

Z'bor still isn't sure about how he feels about getting saluted all the time, he's all for duty, but the formalities make him uncomfortable, so there's a small glint of apology in Z'bor's eyes when they catch the candidate's. The pop to the eye kind of has him holding back a chuckle, but he remains stern looking despite the fact. "You get used to it." He comments, though Z'bor has only ever known tropical climates, so maybe the heat is different. Who knows? "I'd get to getting if I were you, you never know when someone might come to check on you…." He trails off as if he would add her name if she'd given it.

"Xanthee sir, from Igen Weyr." she says before going over to the corner and grabbing a dust pan and then actually gets to work on sweeping in earnest then, staying in the vicinity of the greenrider and saying conversationally, "It's a different heat in Igen though, it's a dry heat. This though, this is a whole different beast. At least back home it gets quite cool at night." she chatters on as she continues with her early morning sweeping.

Z'bor nods. "Z'bor, rider of green Ozriath." Z'bor gives a bow with his head, his hands being full, and moves to take a seat at a nearby empty table. He sets his things down and when he removes his riding jacket, his wrists are exposed, flaunting the brightly woven patterns of a few Zingari bracelets. "Ah, Igen, yes. I was rather against the cooler nights when I visited there." Z'bor could drown in heat and be a happy man, one iota of cold however, and he's a big whiny baby. "It gets cooler here too….in some places." The Southern Barrier is the bane of Z'bor's existence, giant ice block that it is. "We have places covered in ice…quite literally."

"Hey, Xanthee~" Yfana strolls into the caverns, brushing dust from her clothing as she comes. "Someone said, hey Z'bor, sir~" a break in the hellos for a brief salute, "They said you knew what needed done in here and to 'get the hell out of their kitchen.'" Yfana's totally not upset about being EXPELLED from the kitchen. It's probably for the best.

Did someone say something about South Barrier? Well, funny you should men— naw, that would he Therst. This is Nox. He's that beach guy from Ista. He wanders up from the inner caverns, carrying a large box. The young man searches out an empty table, which happens to be near Z'bor, Xanthee and Yfana, and heads in that direction, dropping it down, although it doesn't make much of a sound - whatever is inside it is light. He snaps off a quick compulsory salute to Z'bor before opening said box and rummaging through. White things. It's full of white cloth.
Ha! Xanthee knowing what to do out here? That's a laugh and a half, seeing as just a few moments before she was nearly asleep doing her duty. But her childhood in the Lower Caverns at Igen kicks in as she looks around the room. "Well, there's some table bussing that could be done." she says sweeping an arm to the few nearby tables where people in a rush had failed to clean up properly after themselves. Turning back to Z'bor, she nods and smiles, "It can get surprisingly brisk after the heat of the day, and the sandstorms are nothing to shake a stick at. But it's home, always will be to me." she says wistfully as she puts the dustpan down and begins sweeping up the little piles of dirt into it. As Nox comes in with apparently free time on his hands, Xan's eyes narrow at him and she swishes her broom just a little more forcefully around him, inadvertently kicking up some dust in his vicinity. Ooops. No Xan isn't bitter she had to be up before sunrise for chores, why do you ask?

A puzzled expression as there's word Yfana has legit never heard before. "Table… bussing?" A glance around takes in the table so she's going to hazard, "Is that more than just taking off the dirty things? Move the tables also?" Yfana's totally on top of MOST weyr things, but that one just never quite managed to make it into her list. Like a cat around a shiny that box of white cloth catches her eye. "You are working on your robe already?? Xanthee! Come look!" Maybe Nox'll let them ~steal?!~

Nox is oblivious at the moment to the cloud of dust forming around him. He's like a genie! Except not. The young man's bare shins are brushed by broom bristles and, chin still lowered over the box, he slides his hazel gaze to Xanthee. Frown. He had a bath not long ago thankyouverymuch. And he had early chores too! Hence the bath, to hide the smell of whatever it was he was doing. He's clean, for a boy. Mostly. Or he just loves water. But that's a lot of information for the meta. He'll even sneeze. "Haaachoo!" Right into the box. Unperturbed, he reaches in, and pull out white cloth, giving it a shake and holding it up to himself. YES. YFANA. IT'S A ROBE. He'll nod to her question. And it's also waaay too small/short for him. He holds it up towards the girls, squints, shoves it between them. THERE YOU GO. Maybe it'll fit one of them, right? Also - what's sneeze snot between candidates? There's not much there! Promise.

IT IS A SNOT SNEEZE ROBE NOW

With a smile, Xanthee nods towards the tables, where dirty dishes and other detritus from meals are scattered. "Bussing just means clearing the tables, not sure where the term comes from." she says as she cuts down on her sweeping and moves closer to inspect the robe. But when it is thrust at her she sidesteps, holding up her hand. "I brought mine with me from the last time I stood at Igen. I'm good." she says as she reaches down with the dustpan to continue her cleaning up.

Alas, Yfana will also have to wave away the robe, she and Nox are of a height and so it's going to be too short for her also. "I will clean them-" to the talk of the tables, but there is a BOX OF WHITENESS. "My last robe did not last long. There are no white clothes in the jungle." CAn you IMAGINE a wildling running around in the jungle in white? It would be EPIC but also rather silly. "You know, I never have figured out why our knots and robes are white."

"My last one got… burned." Nox offers this information slowly, and then, after they both decline, realizes he's just offered a sneezed-on robe to the girls. His eye widen in a shocked way and he suddenly, in a jerky movement, launches the robe away - way off over his shoulder - way way over towards another table near the corner. It lands on some guy's head that was just about to take a mouthful of soup. Nox raises his eyebrows and attempts to look polite as the other man turns and glares at him. He'll even wave a bit. Robes for everybody. Even that guy! Especially that guy. "You're from Igen," that's to Xanthee. "Like Amania. Cool. No wonder you guys know each other. Were you candidates together before?" He's going to dig through the box a bit more, pushing it a bit closer to Yfana, in case she wants in on this too. It's safe. The sneeze only hit the first layer. "It's because we have pure hearts," Nox supplies with a small smile, that turns to a grimace when he realizes how lame that might sound. "Or something. Pure… I don't know. Maybe it's so they can pick us out easier, so we're all the same. White is pretty neutral."

Xanthee ponders Nox's words about his last robe and cocks her head to one side as she imagines all the way one would be able to burn a robe. Her imagination takes her on a bit of a ride before she pulls back to reality with a shake of her head as he mentions Amania. "No we weren't candidates together, but we both work in the bazaar and that's where our paths crossed. She's great." she says as she puts the broom aside for the moment and gets herself a cup of klah before settling herself down to drink it at the table Nox is at. "I think that's it. White is an absence of color, like candidates are those with an absence of rank." she puts rather poetically.

Work is LEGIT OVERRATED (Also, shirking work bingo baby~) Yfana LAUGHS and has to clamp her hands over her mouth as the guy over there is all WTF ROBE and ducks down so that he doesn't seen her mirth at his expense. That box is legit good cover. "Seems hard to clean blood off of though. There was a mauling when I stood last." Germs never really bothered the wildling so she's gonna dive in once the man turns away from their knot. Another robe gets pulled out as if the RP gods decided to add to Yfana's word. A finger pokes through a hole that could have been made by poor baby maulings. "Igen was very dry the once I was there." It's about all she can add to conversation about ~away places~. "It is the only place not-Southern I have been."

Z'bor has been here, really, eating away at his giant plate of food. Salutes were given back when necessary and he's keeping an eye on things. But really. He's STARVING. All that PT this morning before dawn was quite the workout!!!! As it is now, he's finishing up but sitting back and sipping his klah whilst watching the candidates go about their business. He's got a bit before drills, he'll be the supervising adult-thing.

Nox nods a bit thoughtfully to Xanthee, "Yeah, she doesn't seem to know dragons that well, so that makes sense." Speaking of maulings and blood, he finds one with a nice ol' faded red stain on the front of it, and pulls it out, sniffing it for a moment. "Wine," he says, with a smirk, winking as Yfana reappears from behind the box. A quick glance to see if that guy with the robe is ok. He is. Just eating soup now. The robe is on the back of his chair. Did Z'bor see any of that? The young man peeks around at the Serval wingsecond, who is busy eating. "Yeah, the maulings are the worst. Did anybody get hurt? I hope they were ok." He spots another hole on the robe Yfana is holding and pokes his finger through. It's the simple things, guys. This is totally kind of not really work. "I've never been to Igen. Must be a lot of sand, yeah? This was my first time away from Ista. Well, other than day trips after my friends graduated."
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Xanthee shudders a little bit at the thought of maulings even though there weren't any that were too bad at the last hatching she had stood for. In defense of Amania, she speaks up, "She doesn't, no, but she's not weyrbred." Uh oh, don't want to be revealing someone else's secret there Xanthee so she quickly changes the subject, "So you guys have any favourite eggs yet?" she asks in complete nonchalance as she sips her klah and makes a little face. "Ugh, give me tea any day." she mutters under her breath, but just adds more sweetener and keeps drinking, needing a little artificial alertness.

"I wonder if they impressed while noshed… That would explain more holes." Yfana tosses that question into the ether as she sets aside the the robe and goes to pull out another one. Talking about drinking candidates is legit normal, right? "It is not a bad thing to not be weyr bred. Have toughness, and differences in thinkings. This is why they teach us! Vani had to teach me weyr manners." This robe looks more her speed and she'll just try it on. Thanks Z'bor for being such a laid back ADULT THING. "These eggs bite less than others. One was like a little argument, I think the small dragon was confused."

Step out of line with Z'bor around and see how chill Z'bor is. Xanthee knows. However, nothing done so far is tripping Z'bor's alarms, so yeah, he'll sit here and be chill and drink his klah. Talk of eggs has him remembering things, but now's not the time for examining memories. Z'bor moves to sip from his klah again and finds his cup empty. He stands to refill it, chuckling at Yfana's egg comment. "Kind of scramble your brains, don't they?" He asks in response. Oz had done a number on him, hers had been one he'd touched, and received something from. He shivers.

Nox listens quietly, pulling out another robe to hold out against himself. Again, kind of tiny. IS THIS THE SMALL BOX? He'll sift through the other side, pulling out a bigger one, which he holds up to himself again. That's a maybe or quite possibly a yes, judging by the way he sea-saws his head. "Weyrs have manners?" He grins ear to ear, possibly teasing. "Favourite one? Uhh…" A chuckle. "I'm not sure. They do kind of like to mess with you, or maybe there's a reason for it. Maybe it was just pretending being confused." He'll nod to Z'bor's assessment. Scrambled brains! "How long have you been a dragonrider, sir?"

As she listens to the conversations around her, Xanthee spies one of the women who works in the Caverns waving in her direction. With a sigh, Xan gets up out of her chair and smiles at the others. "I will see you guys around, I'm also on dish washing duty." she says with a long sigh that indicates she would rather be on any other duty right now. With a small salute at Z'bor, cause he likes that so much, she turns on her heel and heads back to the kitchens.

"TOO MANY manners." Yfana is very adamant about this, though she does let go a wry smile and notes, "Though the hold has more. Two sets. One from Lord Keiron, the other from the wildlings." The robe she has saved from the box gets folded over the back of a chair and as Xanthee gets called away Yfana raises a hand to waves the girl g'bye. Then her attention fixes back at Z'bor, curious as to his answer. This had not been talked about last time Yfana and Z'bor were in the same room.

Z'bor thinks for a moment and stirs sweetener into his klah. "Some fifteen or sixteen turns now. I was still a lad when I impressed." Z'bor smiles, returning to his seat. "It seems like more of my life than not." He lifts his brows and shrugs before sipping from his mug.

Nox shakes his head sadly for Xanthee's plight, waving as she disappears into the kitchens. "She's a hard worker," he notes to the assemblage. He'll hold onto this robe, closing up the box as Yfana seems to have found one she likes too. A smile for Yfana and her too many manners, and Z'bor and his sweetened klah. "That's a long time, sir." The young man folds his robe haphazardly, placing it on top of the box, scooping up said box in his arms. His look is apologetic. "I'd better get these back to storage - actually, maybe I'll bring them up the barracks, so more people can go through them." And that's just what he'll do. Also, Yfana will do what she does, and Z'bor will finish his klah and do what he does. And that's the curtain on our scene.