Monaco Bay Weyr - Meeting Chamber
Though fairly small this room is still sufficient enough to hold a round table with twelve chairs about it, and there is electric lighting in the room to provide plenty of illumination for the meetings held within. The table is a rich deep mahogany, looking of an age to almost be an original furniture piece of this weyr. The chairs are newer but done still made in a way to match the style of the table. Cushions with the device of the weyr upon it, three silver roundels on a midnight blue field, are set upon each chair for comfort.
((OOC - This log takes place immediately after Burning Down the House!))
A fire such as there was in the stables needs many bodies to help fight it, but somewhere there neesd to be some sort of coordination, not only for during but for the cleanup. While the bowl was filled with willing volunteers for the fighting it seems that only one person is taking care of the aftermath - Aliona. Woken at some point in the night she had been on the periphery of the firefight, eventually retreating to the safety of the meeting room where she can make herself of some use. Even here there is the scent of fire - carried in by those that have traipsed in and out to give updates.
Dashiel's carrying more of that fire-scent with him, along with the powdery white of ash and the darkening of smoke over his pajamas. He's figured out where he's going through some combination of seeing where the other hurried figures are going to and from and the fact that a meeting room as headquarters just sort of makes sense, even if he's never been in there before. He nudges the door open and sticks his head in - yeah, that looks like someone in charge. Great! Now what? "Uh. Hey."
If the man leaving just as Dashiel enters looks tired, Aliona looks wrecked. There's an obvious layer of stress, on top of the worry about the fire, that doesn't quite get hidden before her head snaps around so that she can blink at Dashiel. "Hey. Come in, come in, ain't no point standin' on ceremony t'night." One hand lifts, rubbing first at her forehead before making a quick trip through her hair. "No need t'ask where you've been. You okay?"
Dashiel steps inside, letting the door shut behind him. He nods, then blinks at the question like he just… hadn't even been thinking about it. "Uh. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He smiles briefly, an urge to reassure that's very quickly outclassed by the situation. "It's just… we found something /weird/." There's a little bit of uncertainty to his tone at the end, like he's wondering if it's really worth adding more work to the already exhausted-looking Aliona.
"Good. Good." There's a definite moment of relief that crosses Ali's expression, as if she'd been expecting another complaint or something along those lines. "There's been a few minor burns an'… somethin' weird?" her eyes close for a second, a deep breath, a resetting of everything. All business. "Right. Weird. Okay. First off… who are you?"
Dashiel nods, coming to stand near the table. He reaches out one hand, tracing fingertips along the edge of the wood to feel the texture. He doesn't exactly need it for balance, but… the grounding effect is nice. "Oh. Dashiel. Uh, I'm one of the candidates…" Which doesn't tell her all that much, does it? "R'en and Sindrieth picked me up from Xanadu."
Aliona manages a smile, "I would say well met, Dashiel, but can think'f better circumstances. Have a seat." Either she thinks this is going to take some time or she's needing one herself because she pulls out the closest chair and flops down in to it. Almost immediately she starts searching for something to write with quickly making a note of name and the word weird (which gets underlined twice). "Ain't exac'ly been the best candidacy for you I guess when y'get dragged out your bed for a fire." It's the closest to an apology that's coming for the minute, and she quickly follows it up with, "You'd better start at the beginnin'."
"…could be worse, at least. We're not in the infirmary." Dashiel smiles wryly, again a fleeting expression as the serious of the situation takes hold, and takes a chair for himself. His eyes go to what Aliona's writing, curious to see for himself even if it's just… what he said. An absent nod, and then he looks up to her again. "The beginning. Right." So, he was born- okay, a little less beginning. "We were at the fire, and… I think Doktah saw it first, she's one of the other candidates. But then Kell went and found someone knocked out - by the henhouse, not in the fire. And they weren't, like, burnt or anything."
Aliona writes, though she's definitely employing some sort of shorthand. Well… missing letteres here and there. Probably deliberately. "Candidates. All the candidates." For some reason she writes cake on the edge of the paper, but it could be unrelated. "Glad we had y'all here then, sounds like y'all had a go at helping. Though there's one on the way to the infirm'ry I think." She looks around quickly, searching for a name on another bit of paper, but gives up. "Anyway. Sorry. Unconscious person. They been tryin' t'help?"
"Doktah," Dashiel says in answer to what the paper fails to fill in for Aliona. "She got hurt. And Quinn maybe should be but she probably won't." A brief frown, for that, and then a shrug. Back to unconscious people! "I don't think so. He didn't… look like it." That part sounds terrible and like the weakest explanation ever, and Dashiel's tone says he knows it. So he moves on quickly! "There was another one, too. A kid, like, just old enough to apprentice, and he was… there was blood in his hair. Like someone hit him."
Aliona's reply is a word that no self-respecting weyrwoman should know. Or at least that one shouldn't say in front of a candidate. "Was there…." A pause, a deep breath, a shake of the head. She's definitely fighting to not swear again. "Y'think they were fightin'? Could that have started it? Shells." At least this time the oath is much milder. "Okay. Okay." There's a hint of unspoken 'why me' in her tone. "Where are they? Is someone takin' 'em t'the infirm'ry?" Apparently as she gets stressed her accent gets stronger.
Dashiel looks entirely unruffled by the swear. He's a journeyman technician when he's not a candidate, and some machines seem to /run/ on profanity. If anything, he looks relieved for the validation that, yes, this was worth following up on. He nods. "Yeah. Or someone else, who hit them and… ran away?" A shrug. "I don't know. But it was weird." And so he's here! And those two? "They're with the healers at the stables… or maybe the infirmary by now, I don't know. But I got Kellanar to stay with them, just in case. Of… whatever."
Aliona's fingers dig into the pressure points at the side of her head, eyes closing for a second. "Y'did the right thing." She looks straight at him as she says it, nothing but sincerity and thanks in her expression and she makes sure that he sees it. "I… I ain't got a right t'ask you t'do this, you need t'get some sleep, but could y'deliver a message for me? Need t'get a guard on the infirm'ry because I want t'know the second those men c'n talk. An' if it weren't them an' someone's comin' back… Let me write this down. Y'know where the guards are?" Turns out he's not actually getting a chance to say no after all. Dashiel - messenger boy one more time.
Dashiel nods, meeting Aliona's gaze and - from what he sees there - taking both relaxation and satisfaction. He done good! He nods readily to her request for delivery. Right now, he'd probably agree to stand watch the rest of the night himself - though it'd be a terrible idea, as he'd find once the adrenaline finished working its way through. Delivering one more message? Easy. "Yeah, there's the post near the watchtower. And I don't think I could sleep yet anyhow."
Aliona scribbles something on the btotom of the paper she'd been taking notes on, tearing it off rather haphazardly and offering it over. "That should get them t'at least send someone over if there ain't already someone there. I'll need t'go see them later, but I need t'get everything… just everything." There's a faint chuckle breaks free, but it's halfhearted at best. "All you candidates take t'morrow off. Anyone asks, tell them I said y'could 'cause of tonight."
Dashiel nods, glancing at the page as he takes it, and then back to Aliona. "Easier to get them to send guards than to send them away, right?" He halfway grins for that, and nods again more somberly. "There's a lot of everything." He starts to push his chair back, then pauses with another smile for the day off. "Thanks," he says. He finishes standing, then pauses again. "You want… klah, food, anything? There's people in the caverns, I can tell someone on my way."
Aliona's head shakes, but it take a moment before she does that. A moment of definite consideration. "Could really use a nap, but I'll be fine. I'll make sure I come get somethin' in a little bit, if it gets brought in here I'll never leave." Another piece of paper is pulled towards her, another note beginning to take shape until she pauses and looks up. "Dashiel?" See, she remembered his name, "Thank you."
Dashiel nods, with a wry smile at the desired nap. "Don't think they can deliver those yet." As she turns back to her notes, he waits for a moment - just to see if there's anything else - and then he turns away as well. Maybe it's partly that motion that draws her attention, and he turns back at his name, head tilted to the side in question. A further mission? Nope, just gratitude. His head dips in a nod down that lingers there a moment. "Welcome. It's at least one piece of the everything, right?" A wry smile. "Good luck with the rest of it."
Aliona doesn't actually say 'I'll need it' but it's there in the brief raising of her eyebrows and the one-sided smile that flickers into place for a moment. A quick nod draws its own line under the conversation as she goes back to writing once more but there's a faint, a very faint, echo of a smile that remains - so maybe Everything won't be as bad as it could be.
There's a slight deepening of Dashiel's own lopsided smile in answer to that one, and then… he's off! To deliver the message to the guards, and then to catch up with Kellanar, and then to go wash off the smoke and have the exhaustion catch up with him in the hot springs as the adrenaline wears off and so have to drag himself into bed like that. Good thing he has tomorrow off!