Eastern Weyr- Beach
To either side, as far as the eyes can see, sand stretches out with darkling black fingers towards the caress of the brightly blue ocean that encroaches and retreats from the shore in gentle lapping waves. The jungle is dense, although it relents and thins along the border between sand and forest, and there is a clear pathway leading back towards the weyr. Animals and birds can often be heard rustling amid the bright foliage of the jungle.
A winding pathway from the sandy beach to the clearing is lit by paper lanterns enclosing electric lights, softly glowing and illuminating the pure black sand walk way. Springtime has arrived on Eastern Weyr, the flowers budding with wild abandon and all about new growth of the jungle seems to be the theme both in the animal and plant kingdoms.
Graduation looms for the weyrlings. Their life mates have reached their full length and maturity. Many lessons have been had over the last turns, including the 'talk' all about flights. Vanessa is likely still blushing from that particular lesson. Despite the fact that she's found her own hut up in the trees, Nessa is lingering at the Weyrling barracks today. Ceresth is off sunning in the clearing and Nessa is…well cleaning. As she cleans she hums a cheerful little tune.
Perhaps smelling a bit on the rank side, but that'll happen when you're bent over a latrine all day long cleaning. Latrine duties for the weyrling have persisted due to his unruly behaviour and bad mouth. But, at least for the moment Chi looks rather happy as he makes his way into the barracks. "Heya, Nessa. Surprised to see you here and not at your weyr."
Pausing mid note Vanessa turns at the sound of Chi's voice and beams a bright smile before a blush creeps along her neck and her eyes duck down briefly. Embarrassed to see Chi?? "Chi! Hiya. Hmm? Oh well Ceresth wanted to sun and it was better sun out here so I thought I'd do a bit of cleaning." she rambles on quickly. "Didn't really want to be alone in the weyr honestly. What're you up to here? Thought you'd be…well headed to bathe!" she grins quickly.
Chi grins amiably as he makes his way over and plops himself on his old cot, pulling the pillow to himself and resting his head on it. "Eventually I'll get to the baths, but I had a couple of things I still need to move to my weyr. So I came to pick them up for when we graduate."
"Isn't it exciting?" Vanessa asks brightly as she moves to sit on the edge of Chi's cot after he's plopped down. "Shortly we'll both be full riders and able to do anything we want." her arms spread open wide. Blue-green eyes sparkle as they look down upon Chi. "Where's your weyr at? You should come visit my hut sometime. I painted inside a pale red!"
"It is pretty exciting, so long as I don't get myself held back. It's a fine line I'm walking, but that just makes it more exciting." Chi laughs and moves to edge over as Nessa joins him, making room for the goldling. "I already do what I want, I don't need a fancy title for that. But it will be nice to have a bit more freedom without people clawing at me all the time." Chi rolls his shoulders in a shrug, "It's over by the crafter's clearing. It's not anything fancy, really, quite boring."
At Chi's declaration of him doing what he wants she simply gives him a Look. All throughout Weyrlinghood she's tried to impress upon him to at least /try/ to follow rules like everyone else. Clearly this hasn't worked so now she doesn't verbally say anything. She just gives him a look that says it all instead. "Oh well you should make it fancy a bit. It should reflect /you/ and how you are!" a pause is given then she smiles shyly. "I could help you find stuff for it if you like." offers the young gold rider.
Chi's gaze flicks away, instead finding interest in the blanket at that look, perhaps just a little on the abashed side. He draws circles with his fingers, coughing once before speaking. "Sure, that'd be nice. I haven't the faintest idea on how to make it look nice. I mean, I don't need a whole lot, just a bed and a place to put my stuff."
"Well that's cause your a boy." says Vanessa matter of factly. "Boys really don't know much about that sort of thing really." at his slightly abashed look she seems surprised and this causes her own gaze to dart down at her hands. Figeting a bit with the edge of the covers she continues with. "You need more than just a bed. Perhaps some pretty covers and lots of pillows. So when you have girls over…" her words tumble over each other and stop suddenly as if she wasn't actually planning to say that last part out loud.
Chi wrinkles his ose slightly, "Hey, just cause I'm a guy doesn't mean I don't have a sense of style. I just don't see the need for pointless things." Chi shakes his head slowly, pulling himself into a sitting position. A smirk pulls at his lips, leaning forward with a bit of mischief flashing in his eyes. "Really now? So you're going to help get the girls into my weyr, how generous of you, Nessa." He laughs cheerfully, shrugging his shoulders.
Vanessa stammers. "Well um I mean it's not like you need /help/ getting girls into your weyr. Just that I thought you'd have lots of girls in your weyr or something and I thought they'd like pretty colors in it." blushing brightly now she looks steadfastly down at her lap, her hand twisting the covers into a knot at this point.
Chi laughs cheerfully and reaches out to give Nessa playful shove, "Oh come on, Nessa, it's not like being with others is a reason to be ashamed of yourself." Chi shakes his head slowly, "You'll see, it's not that bad. And it's not like I'm /that/ much of a hound. I may talk big game but you know most of that is just talk."
Vanessa peeks out from behind her lashes towards Chi but a smile does emerge from the playful shove he gives. Finally she lifts her gaze to him though her ears still bear a faint blush to them. "I'm sorry." she apologizes for no reason. "I've just so nervous about being with someone!" she admits. I know you're not /that/ much of a hound!" she grins. "But you have experience and I don't." she adds in a small whisper.
Chi smiles slightly and gives a shrug of his shoulders, "It's nothing to be ashamed about, and nothing to be sorry about, Nessa." Chi says softly, offering her a fond smile. "You just gotta find the right person to be with, but you'd better find them before that gold of yours goes all glowy. It'll be more enjoyable for you and make you less distracted, right?" He gives a shrug of his shoulders, "You don't need to know what you're doing, it's just something that comes natural."
Vanessa has been told all this before of course but perhaps today, finally, she actually listens to the words and believes them. Briefly her eyes unfocus as she checks something with her life mate. Grinning a bit she actually keeps from blushing as she relays. "Ceresth says she's not yet ready to challenge all the males in the weyr. Her words exactly." she remarks, her tone amused. "But that I should enjoy myself with a male in bed and soon because it'll make me feel better." she just barely keeps from blushing at that.
Chi shakes his head and offers a faint smile, "Well, perhaps after graduation. That'll be the right time, I reckon, and that way you won't make trouble for yourself. Besides, we'll have all of Pern to scour, and I'll help you find a good guy for you. We'll go bar crawling and have a good time."
"Bar crawling?" Nessa asks curiously. "What's that?"
Chi grins and laughs, "You know, going to bars, having a bunch of drinks, meeting people. It'll be fun! You meet a lot of people that way." Chi shrugs his shoulders, "Though, if you're not much of a drinker, you'll have to go easy first, and of course we can't drink /too/ much or we'll be too far off to make it home." See? Chi has some sense in him.
Vanessa oohs a bit and gives a nod of understanding. "Okay then..lets do that. I bet you know a bunch of good places to go meet new people." she's so confident that Chi can do nearly everything.
"/After/ graduation. I don't care to be mucking latrines for the rest of my life. It's bad enough as it is." Chi snorts quietly, "I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever get rid of this disgusting stench."
Vanessa giggles a bit. "I can wait until /after/." she assures him. "Scrub up with plenty of sweetsand. I'm sure it'll come off /someday/
Chi lifts up anm arm to sniff at himself anda look of disgust flickers across the weyrling's face. "I dunno, I might just have to put up with being stinky for the rest of my life. Ah, woe is me. I suppose you're stuck with me who smells as bad as his attitude." Chi laughs good-naturedly before shrugging his shoulders. "We'll have fun, you'll see. It'll be great to get out of the weyr and just…relax! No more lessons, no more chores, just you and me having a good time together."
"So That is what bad attitude smells like." Vanessa leans in to get a better smell of you. "Course we'll have fun cause you will show me all the cool places to go for fun. And Ceresth will love the traveling too. You can come to Xanadu with me and meet my Starcrafter friend."
Chi grins impishly, "You mean your boyfriend. Yes, you must show me this starcrafter of yours. I'm eager to meet him." Chi laughs cheerfully and rolls his shoulders, "I can't wait to go exploring again, it'll be great, and fun. And there's so many more places just waiting to be explored. You should come with me to Ista, too, they've got an investation of crawlers there."
Vanessa sticks out her tongue. "Not my boyfriend." she points out. "Just a friend!" that being said she shifts a bit and sniffs Chi again. "You really might never get that smell out!" she pauses. "To Ista? What's over in Ista? Eww..crawlers? Why?"
"Sure, he's a boy, and he's your friend, so that makes him your boyfriend." Chi teases playfully, laughing in amusement. "Yeah, perhaps your right. I'll just have to retire to the bog, only good place for a sort like me." He pauses thoughtfully, "Well, apprently they've got crawlers crawling all over the place. You can't walk in that place without stepping in one, and they were all over the place. I was thinking of bringing a couple here to stick in a certain bronzerider's food."
Vanessa ignores the teasing over her Starcrafter friend and instead remarks on the crawler part of the conversation. "One day someone's gonna do something like that to you." says she of the crawler in food. "Crawlers hmmm?" her nose wrinkles. "Maybe i'll wait to visit then until they are gone." she doesn't seem too keen on seeing crawlers everywhere.
"And I'll just shrug it off. What's a crawler in my food going to do? You just pull the thing out and get new food. No harm done." Chi says quietly, "And I might not be around long enough for it to happen anyway. I know how unwelcome I am around here."
Vanessa pffts. "I'd not be happy if I found a crawler in /my/ food." a shudder at the thought goes through her. "You make yourself unwelcome Chi." she says point blank, not holding back the frown in her tone. "You are welcome but if you aren't happy here then you should just go then. No one will stop you I'm sure." quickly she looks down again at her lap to hide the dismay in her eyes as she says those words.
Chi wrinkles his nose slightly, hurt flashing in his eyes as he pushes himself to his feet then. "Alright then." He says, as if already decided and trekking out of the barracks without casting a glance back over his shoulder.
Vanessa feels the weight of the cot shifting as Chi gets up. She looks up in time to see his retreating back. Weakly she holds out a hand as if to silently stop him but no words come out as she watches, her eyes tearing up quickly.