Who

D'wane, Rocio, Va'os

What

Lemongrass explosions and (not-so) random promotions… oh my!

When

It is sunset of the fourth day of the ninth month of the thirteenth turn of the 12th pass.

Where

Baths, Southern Weyr

OOC Date 09 Apr 2018 04:00

 

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OOC: "And that's the story of how Rocio's little world got flipped, turned upside down. And how she became Weyrlingmaster of a place called Southern Weyr." — D'wane


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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.


SURPRISE! That really is never a good word at Southern, right? Even if someone tries to throw you a surprise turnday party, run far, far, far away as the chances of a dead body showing up or natural disaster is way too likely. However, at least the afternoon's surprise 'Fall over the Boardwalk was mercifully light and major injury free. Even still, the baths have been absolutely packed by riders trying to scrub the smell of firestone off their bodies after scrubbing it off their lifemates hide. Trailing in later than most comes D'wane. He may actually be half asleep on his feet as he grabs the sweetsand and a towel and heads to the bath. He's not picky at all about where he's going to land in the tubs. First warm pool with an open spot and the bronzerider plops himself on in. Too bad for the neighbor trying to soak next to him. There might be an elbow or two going into that other rider's personal space.

There’s no party like a Southern Weyr party! Some may be partying elsewhere right now or aiming to do so, after that ‘Fall; surprise as it was, the fact that no Wing suffered losses is something to celebrate! Priorities, though! And among those riders vying for the best spot in the pools is Va’os. He’d found a pretty sweet spot (and didn’t turf anyone to get it!), already submerged in the hot water with his supplies within arms reach. Could be too that he was semi-dozing, as D’wane’s arrival will have him lazily cracking open one eye. He’s spared the elbow to the ribs, but the other guy on the bronzerider’s other side isn’t so lucky! There might be a muttered curse and a glare until they realize who they’re glaring at and promptly shuffle over with minimal grumblings. “Was wondering what held you up!” Va’os’ voice is almost slurred with exhaustion.

What a day. One minute Rocio's enjoying a bit of free time in the afternoon when… surprise! Threadfall over the boardwalk. Again. Rushing to prep Niamyth and join Serval is always exhilarating (not), especially when she's not 100% prepared. Never a dull moment around here that's for sure! With Serval's post-threadfall dismissal, Rocio ventures to the baths after waiting, oh, a good while for the majority of the riders to clear out — and for the pools to filter because, dang, that's just gross to think about. Rounding the corner and into the steam filled baths is the greenrider wearing only a towel wrapped around her frame and light sandals on her feet. She brought her own little satchel of soapsand and just about drops it when she sees the pools full of… dragonriders. Still. She sighs and makes her way over to a bench to sit and slip off her footwear. "Shoulda just went to the river." Mumbled, that.

Someone may be partying right over there on the other side of the pool. That cluster of riders seems to be passing something might flask like between then if the steam isn't lying. D'wane just gives a grunt to Va'os as he's busy scrubbing his scalp. Those helmets get sweaty. Good thing he makes it easy by not having any hair to worry about. "Cause you sharding left me to deal with Tigris's latest wingleader. He just keeps going on and on and on… why'd we promote that guy again?" Which one of them actually did the tapping may be lost in the sands of time and the nebulousness of NPC wings, but it probably happened. Rocio's comment gets s nosrt. "You coulda, if you wanted to deal with the ice melt coming on down now."

“Because despite the endless droning, he actually knows his shit.” Va’os probably should watch his mouth but when has he ever really gone by the rules? Or honestly wholly cared what others may think? In the beginning, yeah. He was a bit of a wreck but that kind of was shell shock of somehow landing the Big Knot! “And it was your turn to deal with it! I dealt with him last ‘Fall.” Sharing is caring, D’wane~ The kind of sharing Rocio is trying to avoid is… yeah, definite pass there. Opening his eyes, he’ll spy the group with the flask but they’ll be spared his envious glances. Instead, he cranes his head back and to the side, all but peering behind him to find the source of the greenrider’s voice. “River is probably freezing, y’know! And we don’t bite. Can’t say as much for the native wildlife!” he points out with a broad, crooked grin.

Rocio slips off her sandals and slides them underneath the bench she's sitting on so no one can trip over them. "Just means it'd be a lightning fast scrubbing." she says with a half smirk to D'wane. Her eyes catch notice of the Weyrleader in close vicinity and her cheekbones turn a bit red beneath the firestone ash smeared on her face. Great. Like she really needs to have top tiered leadership see her undress… Modesty be damned. "Is that," she squints and tosses her chin toward the opposite side of the baths. "A server with a tray full of bacon?" Hey, it's a pretty good attempt to make-them-look, right? Hoping that the bronzeriders at least glance in that direction, Rocio seizes the moment, tosses her towel on the bench and sinks into the pool adjacent to theirs with feline-like reflexes. Time to lather the soapsand!

Thanks to dragon-fancies, at least 50% of the Weyrleadership currently present had already seen a certain greenrider undressed, but sometimes it's better to just ignore that. D'wane certainly is as he focuses on his scrubbing, but that mention of the tray full of bacon backfires as his head is going to whip around back to Rocio. "Why in Farnath's name would there be bacon in the baths?" There's a look sent over towards Va'os and then a quick glance around just to confirm there is indeed no bacon. His bacon-dar wasn't going off, but the steam and the sand could have fooled it you know. And sharing is indeed caring, which is why D'wane sends a splash of water over towards his boss. "Thanks." He sounds SOOO sincere in his thanks. "But guess that means you get him the next time. Starcrafters are saying the next one over Feline Plains should be pretty heavy… and not to mention all the recent casualties." Because nobody would want to RELAX in the baths, right? Just carry on with the most morbid of shop talk.

Let’s not start to bring up statistics here! Va’os, for all his stereotypical behaviours and open flirting in most cases, tends to keep that largely in check when here. Rocio will have her privacy (from them, anyhow), while he pretends to find a missed spot to scrub on his arm. He will, however, snicker under his breath and stage whisper in an aside to D’wane. “… it was a distraction and you fell for it. Good job!” Would bacon as a bath-side snack be a bad idea, though? Those guys have alcohol so… Va’os won’t get as far as to openly suggest it before he’s being splashed. Sputtering, he’ll slick back his hair and wipe the water from his face in the process. “See? I’ll get him when things go south again! You should be thankful you got the surprise one today!” Shop talk, indeed and lets hope Tigris’ wing riders (or the Wingleader in question himself) is lurking nearby. Last thing they need is hurt feelings! Along with morbid topics.

Well, hey. The bacon ploy sorta worked! After lathering up a decent amount of soapsand, Rocio begins to wash her face, neck, and hair without delay. She squeezes her eyes shut when the suds trail down her forehead and only then does she submerge to really rinse off Threadfall's grime. When she rises, both hands slick back her long blonde hair now about three shades lighter from the lack of ash and grit. Don't mind her, she's getting clean and then getting gone. « Having fun? » Shut up, Nia. She reeeaally doesn't need any commentary from the peanut gallery at the moment. "Lightnin' fast." she says to herself. Now where did her satchel of soapsand go? Glancing around, the small bag is seen at the edge of the pool she's in so she wades toward it. The shop talk over yonder ways is starting to kill her post-Threadfall-no-injury-or-death high so she opens the little satchel to breeeaaathe in the scent of lemongrass and clear her thoughts. "Ahh man. That's better." Aromatherapy. They should try it.

Watch out, Rocio! D'wane and Va'os might be mostly ignoring the greenrider since she seems to be wanting to be ignored, but a certain miscreant of a bronze firelizard that D'wane really should have trained better by now is currently cruising through the suds. Jaws theme should totally be playing as Pebble hones in on the little dangly bit from the satchel in greenrider's hand. The bead! It's precious to him or something! Tiny lizard talons reach out to try and snatch it and dart of into the suds. And honestly, D'wane should probably try aroma therapy, but he's not. Focusing more on business stuff while he's got Va'os here and so they can both get to their post-fall drinking quicker. Multitasking is working for once. Probably. "Yeah… I guess I'll take talking with T'ros today." Since it happened. "Looked a lot easier than whatever the crap P'quil had to say. He looked glummer than the last fall and Catmint didn't even take any injuries this time…"

Tsk tsk, D’wane! Not training one’s firelizard… oh wait, Va’os shouldn’t talk. He has a brown named ‘Bad Boy’ for a reason! Who is largely kept in check by Filigree but still. Mercifully, Rocio will only suffer by Pebble’s antics. Aromatherapy? Va’os would try it (and probably love it, shh). Only he’s not about to lather up in any sweet smelling soapsand now. He’s already clean! And… distracted by the conversation with his Wingsecond. “Yeah, well. Do you really blame P’quil? Or his resignation? We all feel the losses hard, but damned if I don’t envy any Weyrlingmaster that hell and the burnout that comes with it. At least we’re in a lull, with the clutches? And not scrambling to reshuffle. What’d you think?” Pointedly aimed at Rocio, now that Va’os feels it’s ‘safe’ to attempt snaring the greenrider back into the fold. That and between him and D’wane, the convo probably buzz killed just about everyone from their pool.

"Hey. Hey!" Rocio appreciates being left alone and the little bronze is disrupting her bath routine. "Can't have-" The bronze does snatch the little bead on the end of the drawstring and now there's an epic battle of tug-o-war as the greenrider puuuulls back with one hand and Pebble heeeaaaves back in an attempt to flee. "-that. No. Noooooooo." With her tugging and Pebble losing the battle, the firelizard lets go RIGHT as Ro yanks a little harder. Then… ploof! Lemongrass scented soapsand flies everywhere (maybe even in the next pool over) and Ro's covered in the stuff. "Uhh." She's only a liiittle scared to look over at the Weyrleader, his Second, and the soapsandy damage. "I…" Eloquence, thy name is Ro. "Am gonna go now." Pebble is eyed.

D'wane doesn't laugh. He can't laugh. He's too busy trying to catch a squirming firelizard that is making sounds that sound like he's being killed until the bronze remembers oh yeah. He can go between and does that. Later, suckers. Peeble is out of here. And D'wane is just left trying to wipe some of the lemongrass sand from his face. "If you thought we weren't doing a thorough enough job scrubbing, you could have just said something. But really, that was my fault. And besides, Ro. You can't go. You got something." He'll wave towards her own soapsand covered self. Can't leave until it's all washed off right. "And you didn't answer the question. Got any advice on what two knuckleheads should do when faced with yet another vacancy to fill? Although this one with a little bit of wiggle room before it becomes an emergency?"

Va’os isn’t laughing either, but that’s because he’s busy coughing to clear out the lemongrass he just accidentally inhaled. By the time he’s got in marginally under control, it sounds like he’s suppressing both the coughs and some laughter! At least until he realizes he has to scrub this all off again. “Damn it, D’wane!” he chokes out. “You’re gonna have to do something about him, you know! Before this happens when we can’t so easily brush it off.” Or scrub it off. Same thing, right? There’s the start of more laughing for D’wane’s remark to Rocio, but that proves to be a Bad Idea and just sets him into another coughing fit. “Let’s hope,” he mutters as he catches his breath. “That it doesn’t become an emergency!” He’ll tip a half-smirk, half-grin to Rocio, while he works on clearing off that lemongrass soapsand. No hard feelings! “… what is this, anyhow?” He’s talking about the scent, of course.

It's time to rinse again and get the heck out of the baths (and away from the buzzkilling Leader pool, seriously guys). This is just par for the day, ain't it? Rocio scrubs a hand down her face and then dunks herself back into the water to rinse off all of the soapsand from her skin. Pebble… it gets dark at night. Remember that. "Yeah, I gotta headache." Rocio deadpans after D'wane says she's got something. "Wait, what question?" Dang. She was too busy wrestling a firelizard and ignoring the conversation to deflect buzzkilling vibes from the bronzers. "Uh." She ponders this for a split second. "Get a new knucklehead to fill it?" Niamyth snickers in the very back of her mind and the green is then shoved further back so she's not distracting right now. "Sorry, sir." About the little 'accident' and the coughing fit. Heh. "This here's lemongrass, it clears the mind and senses with every breath." Perfect aromatherapy! "I gotta get goin' now, if that's okay. Nice seein' y'all. Good threadfall. Happy celebratin'." « You goin' to the Kitten now!? » SHUT UP, Nia! Hoisting herself up out of the pool, Rocio snags her towel and wraps herself in it.

"At this rate, doing something will be Mayte having Rhiscorath eat him!" D'wane really should not have been given a firelizard. The only reliable command is 'go to Rock', but he's got to first finish scrubbing before any more lizard training can possibly happen. At least he's gone now. "So… finding a new knucklehead… any advice on where we can find one of them? My list got a little tapped out filling up the last round of wingleader and wingsecond posts. Unless I were to try and drag someone down from the Reaches…" He gives a glance over towards Va'os. Is the Weyrleader smelling what D'wane is cooking? Probably not, because all they can smell is lemongrass, but D'wane gives a big sniff of his now lemony arm and doesn't seem to object as he continues scrubbing.

“Over my dead body!” Va’os exclaims to D’wane’s suggestion of poaching from High Reaches and doesn’t even blink an eye over how poorly timed that joke may be. He is squinting one eye, but that might be because he’s got soapsand in it and is trying not to further upset Rocio by admitting it stings like hell. Oh, and he’s catching on! There’s a scoff from him, followed by a muffled snicker about having a headache, but he’ll sober (and mature) pretty fast — in the next breath, in fact, as he quickly washes his face clean. It’s through that that he lifts a hand, as if struck by a completely “random” thought. “Might have an idea!” He’s standing now, but the water is still chest deep (don’t worry there, Rocio). “Dunno about knucklehead in this case but I think I know someone who’d be suited for it!” That hand? Now points to the greenrider attempting to flee. NOT FAST ENOUGH! “Right there. Perfect fit, eh?” He glances aside to D’wane with a grin. This was the plan, right? And, because Va’os wouldn’t be Va’os without a moment of distraction, he’ll repeat the name of the scent Rocio oh-so helpfully shared. “Lemongrass. Huh.”

Rocio tucks the edge of the towel against her chest so that it stays in place when she bends to grab the now empty pouch of soapsand. As she does that, her light blue eyes blink and settle upon D'wane as she straightens once again. "Which vacancy y'all tryin' to fill anyway?" If they said, she clearly wasn't paying attention. Her suspicions rise a little more when she gets the feeling that they're sizing her up for something — like when Va'os points right at her. Is the Jaws theme starting to play again? She's not going to wait around and find out, so she sits down on the bench to start slipping her feet into sandals.

"Weyrlingmaster mostly," D'wane will answer, but he's not fast enough as Rocio's slipping out of the pool. And he's going to err on the side of caution and continue scrubbing instead of chasing at the moment. Wouldn't do to end up slipping on some missed suds as soon as he got out of the pool. As the greenrider makes her fleet escape, he turns back to Va'os. "I don't think she took us seriously." Which… surprisingly is a less common problem than one would think! "Guess we can always track her down tomorrow?"

What? Don’t want the Healers in on this too? “What he said!” Va’os juts his thumb over to where D’wane is standing, when he oh-so helpfully fills in the blank for Rocio. “P’quil’s resigning. It’d be the perfect time!” Listen to him try to sell it, like there’s no strings or cons to taking up that position! “Before there’s new weyrlings. Get to know the ropes ’n all.” Oh wait, she’s leaving? Too bad. Va’os isn’t so easily put off but he at least doesn’t go leaping from the pool. Enough riders have cleared out by now and the few remaining are keeping quiet (probably because they’re enjoying the show!). But he’ll raise his voice and pitch it so that she’ll (and everyone else) will hear him. Because as D’wane already knows, Va’os has little shame when he’s on the path to something.

Rocio still isn't quite sure what's happening here even as she listens to what both bronzeriders have to say. Perhaps it's a little bit of shock mixed with Niamyth's prodding at the very edge of their shared 'scape. Either way, the greenrider is sitting up on the bench and peering at Va'os with an expression that can be classified as half scared out of her mind and half you've-got-to-be-kidding me. Never in all of her dragonriding Turns has she been asked (or perhaps voluntold?) to take on a position of this magnitude. However, not one to be easily flustered, Rocio stands up and starts backstepping toward the entryway. "Sure, I can." Be Weyrlingmaster? More backstepping. "Not a problem, sir." Fake it til you make it, Ro. "Thank you. Gotta go now…" If she's panicking, she's not showing it in front of the men in the pool. No, no. It takes every bit of self control to keep her composure until she's in the corridor of the inner caverns… where she runs in a towel out to Niamyth for home.

And now that they've successfully ran most of the other folks from the baths, either though their morbid work talk or offering to throw fancy knots at them, Va'os and D'wane have mostly a whole pool to finish up the last of their scrubbing. It's really a win-win for them, right? All they need is some booze, but they'll get to that eventually.

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