Stir, stir (open)

[ShadowReine]

Kari's elbows ached. She thought she had been stirring this sharding stew for hours.

No, it had been more like thirty minutes, but there was a LOT of stew. The cooking for the Weyr was more of an undertaking than she had envisioned. She supposed, she had not really grasped how many people there were here. Not just people, either. Scraps were set aside for the firelizards. The dragons, of course, fended for themselves in the feeding grounds...except for young weyrlings.

They too had to be fed, and although their food was not cooked, she was told it was quite a bit of butchering work. Some of which was done by the young riders. Well. There were worse tasks.

Worse than stirring stew, too. She stopped, pulling out the spoon. "Is this acceptable thickness, or does it need a few minutes more?" she called to the nearest of the cooks.

She was pretty sure it was, she did know how to cook, after all, but she wanted to double check. It was not like she was in a cothold kitchen on her own, after all.

[Sparrow]

A slender Violet fire-lizard flitted over and hesitated above Kari's spoon, looking like she was almost considering turning it into a perch while it was outside the stew, then continued on to dig through some scraps. She was followed by her usual singular retinue, a Tan, who went through the same process before settling next to the little queen and finding his own snack.

Kora sighed softly. She couldn't help but be grateful that Squeak couldn't fly- Lilac was sure to force the kagen to follow her wherever she went as well if he could. "It looks good enough to me," the Weyrwoman said, approaching stew and Candidate. Kora had been hoping to find the Headwoman here, but it didn't look like she was present... may as well take a glance at the Candidate that was, even if it wasn't her queen's clutch coming up.

"Sorry about those two too," she added, glancing at the fire-lizards. "Lilac's a little strange." She always managed to bother people at the times she was actually following Kora around, so it was a good thing the Violet had lately taken to spending more of her time outside flirting with the males. Squeak, currently peering out from behind Kora's legs, had become the Weyrwoman's new eternal tagalong.

[ShadowReine]

Karisna blinked. That was the Weyrwoman approaching her.

The *Weyrwoman*. She forced herself to think calm. After all, the woman was being nice, friendly, and apologizing for her little queen. "She's pretty," was what she managed to say.

The Weyrwoman had a violet, a tan, and one of those kagen things. She had seen a greenrider with one the other day. They seemed fairly popular pets around here.

Which gave her another reason to be nice and respectful. Violets, after all, made eggs. And she would certainly not turn down a firelizard egg.

"And thank you. I'm a decent cook, but not used to preparing meals for this number of people," Kari admitted. The Weyr...yes. Full of people. And dragons. And firelizards. She might have offered the violet her arm as a perch if she had not been busy.

Besides, the little queen would probably not accept.

[Sparrow]

"Well, it's good to know that a Candidate with a little cooking skill got assigned to doing it." Kora smiled. It had been a while now since she had been stuck with these sorts of jobs, but having been stuck with waiting for a new queen to mature between the two clutches she had stood at, she had definitely worked through her share of chores.

Kitchen duty had always been her favorite. Being out of the way yet still in the company of ever-chatty cooks was an extra bonus. After all the time she'd spent there- as a Candidate and since- Kora had few qualms calling herself a pretty adept cook... not that it mattered much, since no one ever asked, or even really expected their Weyrwoman to do that.

"There are definitely a lot of people here to feed though." It was a fact Kora was very well aware of. "We put a lot of trust into you Candidates to not kill them all when you help out in here." She winked. This one, obviously, they didn't have to worry about, but some of the others...

[ShadowReine]

Karisna laughed. "I don't often burn food." Which she knew was what the Weyrwoman meant.

Then she shrugged. "Seems you put us wherever a bit of extra help is needed. I suppose there's little sense doing anything else, until the dragons make their decisions."

She did wonder what would come from those eggs and what might choose her. If anything. "Hopefully all of the eggs will hatch."

Dragons were stillborn, sometimes, she knew. And she hated when anything was stillborn, any creature. "I'm not too worried about Impressing...not like there aren't going to be plenty more clutches before I get too old."

And then...eh. Maybe these kitchens would become her place of duty. The Weyr would always need people able to cook, surely.

[Sparrow]

"Well, yes." Kora generally left the chore assignments up to the Candidate Master, but that was about how it worked. "And then you'll all be too busy for us to keep recruiting you for normal chores." The weyrfolk usually had a few joking complaints about that loss of hands after a Hatching.

She frowned slightly at the mention of dragon stillbirths. "Yes. It is Jorindath's first clutch though, and from a young father as well..." But it was hard to say what to expect. Jorindath was large and healthy, as was Apolloth. Queens hadn't been laying many duds lately though. "I think people are more interested in seeing if we get a few more of those new colors."

D'mas didn't seem to expect them, but she did. More Barreds had hatched, why not Skies, Teals, and Charcoals? That they weren't showing up in fire-lizards was maybe what made him uncertain.

"And there will definitely be plenty of clutches." Kora smiled. With three clutching queens, one growing, and possibly another clutching color having hatched, Nyocia was at no loss for new dragons. Nayarath had taken up complaining about it lately. Kora couldn't help but suspect it was out of jealousy towards their being two adult Violets, although she doubted things would get much better when Voluspath matured and started stealing her thunder as well.

But... that Nayarath was grumpy about something really went without saying.

[ShadowReine]

Karisna nodded. "Well. I don't care what color I get." Which was true. Saying she did not want a queen out loud, though, might...not go down well with somebody who rode a queen.

Even if Kora was the person in the Weyr Kari would least wish to trade places with, now or ever. "All of the dragons are gorgeous. I saw Apolloth...he's the very pale tan, right? The big one."

She'd seen him and the bronzes and there seemed very little difference in size between them. She'd also seen a tiny white...the only one on Pern right now, and one of only two ever known. Another rider she did not envy.

[Sparrow]

"A good attitude to have." Kora wasn't entirely sure what she had been hoping for when she was on the sands, but would admit that a Gold was quite the opposite. She would never want something other than Nayarath now but... well, it still surprised her a little bit. That they were family was the best way she could describe the relationship, and family wasn't particularly easy to describe.

"That sounds like Apolloth. He's a handsome dragon." Nayarath couldn't argue with that, even if she would never say to anyone that she agreed. The Gold had a soft spot for Tans somewhere. Kora wasn't sure she wanted it found.

"He knows it too," she added absently. Apolloth had tried chasing Nayarath when he and B'can had hardly graduated, if that. They might have still been weyrlings... though just about to graduate. Kora couldn't remember exactly. Obviously the practice had paid off though.

[ShadowReine]

"I hear bronzes really know how handsome they are." Kari grinned. "Hopefully I'm safe from Impressing something quite that egotistical."

Tans were not much different from bronzes or violets from golds. But bronzes and tans only Impressed to men. That was the way of things, even if it wasn't entirely fair...there had to be women out there who would be perfectly competent as wingleader or even Weyrleader.

Not her, but they had to exist. "I do wish, sort of, that they would hurry up and hatch, though...even though I know I might not Impress first time." A lot of Candidates, apparently, didn't.

[Sparrow]

"The odds are definitely in your favor there." It was hard to guess at the probability of another queen egg being laid in the near future... but likely another Weyr would have to be founded if they got many more. Despite that, the number of girls versus the number of queen eggs left most of them likely to not get a Violet or Gold.

The Skies were a different matter... but of course, they had yet to see whether or not they would turn out to be clutching dragons or just very large, infertile females.

Kora smiled weakly. "Well, you can expect the eggs to hatch when you least expect it. When it comes to Impression though... don't put your hopes too low either." She wasn't sure she had ever heard someone mention so many times their chances of not Impressing. Most Candidates spent their conversations guessing at what they would Impress, usually among the bigger dragons. This one was a bit of a surprise.

[ShadowReine]

Kari laughed. "I'm just being realistic. Some people Impress first time, others have to Stand for three or four clutches. I know you set things up with more Candidates than eggs."

Because dragons needed to find the best person. They needed plenty of choice. "I figure that I'll either get chosen this time, or if I'm not, it just means the right dragon wasn't there yet. I've got time."

She wasn't so much setting her hopes low as...remarkably relaxed about the entire thing. "I bet whatever happens, it won't be quite what I expect...does anyone ever get what they expect?"

Had Kora known in her heart she would be a queen rider, or had she been blindsided by Nayarath's choice?

[Sparrow]

Kora smiled. Yes, this girl had plenty of time... and plenty of queens as well. Chances were, she would Impress. After so many Turns of shrinking, the dragons were experiencing an exponential growth spurt. It required nearly every Candidate they found.

"Well, it's a good mindset, I guess." At least she wasn't likely to leave the Sands horribly disappointed if she didn't Impress. "A bit out of the ordinary though." Maybe that would attract one of Nyocia's out of the ordinary colors, though it wasn't something Kora could call.

"I think there have been people here and there who have gotten what they expected." Kora laughed weakly. "Not me though." Not a lot of people.

[ShadowReine]

Kari grinned a bit. "I suppose, even if you get the *color* you expected...not all greens, say, are going to be the same. I mean, they have traits, but I can't imagine they're all identical."

Or they wouldn't, she supposed, need to offer the dragonets quite so much choice.

"Well. A lot of people go through life expecting things they can't get. You hope, but you don't expect. If you keep expecting for stuff you can't guarantee, that's out of your control, you're going to get hurt."

It was different, of course, if you could control it and work for it. But Karisna knew that no matter how hard she worked as a Candidate and how hard she tried...when she got out on those Sands, she could not control the outcome. Being ready for *whatever* it was struck her as the smartest answer.

[Sparrow]

"Very true." But even so, most colors had general personality traits... someone could hope for Brown and nine out of ten times be right about getting a very calm, hardworking dragon. Exceptions were everywhere though- J'ran's Brown, for example, chased every tail he caught a whiff of and tended to be sudden and forthright. But with a rider so... like the usual Brown, it was a good match.

Things generally worked out like that. No dragon would ever be the total opposite of a person, but they generally filled the holes.

I like this girl. Nayarath's intrusion took Kora bit by surprise. The Gold usually kept at least half a mind in on her rider's conversations, but since she had managed to keep out this long, Kora had almost been expecting her to stay out completely.

That's a first. Nayarath was a queen notorious for disliking any and all Candidates, anyways. "What was your name again?" Not exactly related to what the girl was saying, but what exactly could she say to that anyways? And if she was going to stand around interrupting her work and chattering with this Candidate, Kora may as well get her name.

[ShadowReine]

"Karisna," she introduced.

She paused. "I dunno. I don't see myself with a brown. A blue I could deal with. I reckon green or barred is most likely." But she would never know until it happened.

Of course, she was oblivious to any interjection from the queen. Knowing Nayarath liked her would...like as not cause her to blush scarlet. However, she was safe from such embarrassment for now. "But I still think that the personality has to matter more...I know that there are, well, trends, but..."

Trends...which she knew well enough to know barred or green really *was* the most likely for somebody like her.

[Sparrow]

Karisna. Kora tried to find her among the little things she had heard about the Candidates. A dancer? That sounded right.

"I was figuring Green when I stood." Kora smirked. "If Barreds had been around then, I might have hoped for one of them." She probably would have preferred a Barred... they weren't associated with the 'trends' Karisna mentioned less- not yet- and a fondness for other women was the one thing about Greens that the woman did not fit.

Nayarath never let Kora think about that much though- the Gold found it an insult for her chosen rider to think she would have been much better suited for a Green.

"And the dragon matters most, so I suppose we'll see." There had been small alterations turning up in the Impressing patterns of dragonets as of lately- more Browns Impressing to women, the single male Barredrider, among other things. "I feel it depends most on personality, but it's hard to say if even the hatchlings know just what sort of personality each is looking for."

[ShadowReine]

"Well, they did only just hatch. They're making a snap decision based off of what they can sense. So I doubt they really know, like, consciously...I doubt they're thinking it through."

She thought of the eggs. "Unless they remember us from the Touching and think about us until the Hatching, which I suppose they might. I thought I heard something move in one of the eggs."

Human babies stirred in the womb, after all, so why wouldn't dragon hatchlings move around a little in the eggs, until those prisons became too small and they burst out into a welcoming world. Always welcoming. Pern always needed dragons.

[Sparrow]

"Most likely." They got plenty of time after the fact though. Kora had always been curious about the issue, and bothered that even her Gold couldn't explain it. Like Karisna had said, they were a newborn deciding the rest of their life on the spot. Obviously there was some sort of much deeper, elusive, instinct at work there.

"It's been proved somewhat that they do." Even over the past couple Turns, Kora had seen dragonets run to the Candidate that had spent a little extra time at their egg. Just how they knew who it was that had contacted them through an eggshell was another mystery. "But it still depends, of course."

A girl could hover over a Bronze egg hoping it was a secret queen, and it likely wouldn't do anything for her. If it was just the wrong dragon as well... but it was all something mostly unknown to them.

[ShadowReine]

Karisna nodded. "Some people think an unborn child can hear its mother's voice. Maybe they can hear people through their shells."

She had made sure to visit as many eggs as possible at the touching. It certainly would not hurt her chances, and it might even help them. She might not be in a hurry, at some levels, but she didn't want to somehow...miss out on her dragon.

"All I know is that some of the other Candidates are stressing out over color, a couple are upset there likely won't be a queen, one boy is terrified of Impressing green...which probably means something he doesn't want to admit...and I refuse to be like that about it. I don't think it'll help anything."

[Sparrow]

Kora had no doubt a baby- or a hatchling for that matter- could hear anyone’s voice. The difference was them familiarizing themselves, or bonding with it. She had talked to the eggs at the hatchings she had stood at, but only briefly touched the queen egg at both more because that was just what the girls were expected to do, but look where she was.

“I only really expected a Green, so I guess I wasn’t that worried overall.” That wasn’t expecting much, and anything bigger… well, she wouldn’t have liked a Brown. A Blue she could have survived.

But I’m much better than any of them.

Yes. Kora refrained from joining the reply with any movement- only Karisna would see it, and what would she think? “Most girls wanting queens is always a problem.” Obviously, there weren’t a lot of them. “Though really focusing can help sometimes… but then, our Whiterider is a good example of someone getting the opposite.” She smiled.