Candidate Lesson: Impression

[Wolfy]

Candidate Lesson

All Candidates are to attend mandatory lessonin the common room On Febuary __, 2010 at 2:30 in the afternoon. No paper or pencils are required. Candidates may bring pets and/or firelizards if are able to keep under control.[/center]

-J'kent of Green Marith, Candidate Master

[/i][/right]

J'kent stood looking out into the swirling snow from inside the common room as he waited for the Candidates that were supposed to be coming. The last lesson he had held, no one had come at all. Now that there were more Candidates there, he hoped hat would not be the case.

Today they would be learning about Impression and etiquette on the Sands. It was a rather important subject when one thought about it. They needed to know what was to be done on the Sands before they got there.

Thinking things along those lines, he sat back and waited.

Roll Call

Ka'sta
Lorelei Late!
Mentari
Loren
Alex
Thaddeus
Sara
Guin Late!
Virika
Natan

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari had a death grip on Virikas hand as she rushed them to the common room and the lesson that was apparently mandatory. Little blue Christopher was clinging to Mentaris sweater hood, chirping in excitement of what he thought was a new game. When they finally reached the common room they realized that they were the first to arrive. Mentari smiled before approaching te man sitting at the front of the room. "Hello. We are here." she proudly announced.

Virika looked around, then took a seat. She felt a little awkward. The general feeling was the same she would have gotten had she been in class at school and arrived first to it. But Mentari seemed comfortable about everything... So it must be fine, Virika thought. This was where she would learn what to expect once she stepped up to Impress one of those wonderful Whers. She smiled at that thought.

[shadowreine]

"Ivy, either behave or go back to our room," Loren informed her vine-wrapped green. The green chittered something unpleasant, but then settled onto her shoulder.

The creature had a disconcerting habit of supporting her balance by wrapping her tail part of the way around Loren's neck. Once fully grown, it would likely be all of it. "Don't strangle me."

The green chirped, but then furled her wings. The note had said firelizards could stay if they behaved. Thus, Ivy had better behave. The girl moved into the classroom and sat down. She supposed the instructor was from Pern, most of them would have to be to have the experience to teach the youngsters. She was learning to read their rank sigils to a point, but they still rather blurred together.

The green was the color of his dragon.

--

Tad was not entirely comfortable. These people had saved his life, and the dragons...the dragons had stirred something in him. So had the ugly whers, the night guardians of this place. Thus, he had asked to be allowed to stay.

They had said more than that. They wanted him to be a potential dragon partner. He was actually slightly late to the lesson. It had taken him some time to find where he was supposed to be...he had got lost. There were three people there already, plus the older man who was obviously the instructor. Three girls, so far...one of them black, he noticed. No, black-Asian. A mix. She had one of the small dragons that seemed to be everywhere here on her shoulder...and so did one of the others. They seemed to be just pets.

Unlike the huge dragons, that were as intelligent as men.

[mimiheart]

Natan walked quikly down the hall and looked around for the room he was supposed to go to.
finally, he found the common room and walking in, shoulders back as held himself proudly.
He saw that he wasn't first there, but he wasn't as late as he had feared; Bubbles, the blue, sat on his shoulder, clamer than Naray, he had decided to bring the little creature.

his scarred cheek and brow were facing away from the other Candidates, and Natan was happy for that.
another bonus, the shirt he'd put on hid the shoulder-scar as well, so the only real noticable part was the unmovable arm and the limp... and hopefully, no-one would try to hold conversation with hhim, so no fear of his lisp being noted.
he nearly smiled dat the thought, and nodded, respect in the nod, to the Candidate Master. He then took a seat, carefully moving so nothing was noticable at first glance about him.
He then waited for others to show up and for the Master to start the lesson.

[Wolfy]

Alex Taylor. If she was famous, which she should be, the critics wouls say: "Stunning, new, and overall gorgeous!" She might of ended up a model, maybe on Tyra Bank's show, America's Next Top Model. Oh, that would have been the life. But how many models got to have a dragon? Absolutely none that she'd ever heard of.

Now, she was fully showing that side of her off, with a rich red miniskirt, silver sequin tank, knee high silver boots (these weren't stilettos), and red fishnet gloves with no fingers and that reached to her elbows. A blue and green flit sat on each of her shoulders, Goof sleeping and Venus dozing. She strode down the hall and into the common room, eying the Candidates that had already arrived.

Finally, she sat in a very comfortable chair near the front, legs crossed.
__________________________________________________________________________

J'kent smiled as his students started to arrive. One by one, he marked their names off the list he had had in his pocket, until there were only four left. Two young men and four young women. He smiled encouragingly at each of them, his grey eyes, smiling. Well, it isnt a complete failure this time, he thought happily. From where she lay in the sun, Marith replyed What do you expect, love? There are more Candidates now than there were before?

He grinned and glanced at the door once more. If the others came late, it was their fault, and then they would get the worst of the chores the Candidates were assigned to do. "Alright. This particular lesson is somewhat important to each and every one of you Candidates. That's why it is mandatory. You all want to impress a dragon, right? And most, if not all, have impressed one or more firelizards." He paused and glanced at each face bbefore continuing.

"You all need to know what happens during a Hatching, and then what happens immediately afterward.

"If yo u want to Impress, than you must be on time for the Hatching. You are allowed to be a little late, but I wouldn't advise it. You'll miss some rather good opportunities. When you arrive, you will hopefully be wearing the traditional outfit of sandals and long white robes. This will keep the worst of heat from making you that uncomfortable.

"This is optional, but some dragons prefer it. You should probably ask permission before getting to close to the eggs of whichever clutch your going toward. In this case, I suggest you heed Crucith at all costs; she's not exactly a sweet green." With this he aimed a grin at the Candidates and then sat on the desk casually, as if this wasn't a lesson at all.

"Any questions so far?"

[Houka Ryuu]

[OOC: Although I don't think Guin should be here at all since he is a Wher Candidate, I'll still have him attend since Virika is there as well. *shrugs*]

Guin being the night owl that he is, saw the note about the Candidate Lessons to be held in the Common Room, as he was on his way to bed. He was of a mind to skip the lesson entirely but had doubts on whether he should or not. Feeling pressed for a task to be done, Guin shrugged the feeling away and trudged his way towards the Common Room instead of his room. When he got there, her realized the lesson was already underway. He paused to listen as the Candidate Master began talking. After the Candidate Master was done speaking, he made his way to one of the seats. On his way, he yawned as he sat and raising his hand to get the Candidate Master's attention, he asked his question.

Guin already knew of how to Impress a Wher from his talks with the Wher Handlers in the past visits when he used to accompany his dad to the Weyr. But his information was from four years ago, maybe things have changed. "Don't we need a knife to cut ourselves with? I thought that's what Wher Candidates need to do in order to Impress a Wher and form a blood-bond with them." Guin asked as his hands moved in a way as if he was holding a knife and cutting himself to bleed a bit of blood. His face giving a confused look as if he couldn't believe that he would no longer need to blood himself in order to form a deeper bond with a Wher.

[yaoiwafflez]

Lorelei was booking it down one of the blasted many hallways in the Weyr, hair and clothes flapping as she ran. She was currently conducting an experiment to see if it was possible to turn back time by running at the right speed.

Because otherwise? She was LATE. She'd seen the notice about the candidate's lesson, but her general absentmindedness and the fact that it hadn't entirely occoured to her she even was a candidate had made her utterly forget.

So that was why she was running like a maniac down a flight of stairs at 2:40 in the afternoon.

Her flitters were doing their own thing; Tiamat and Naga were sunning, Ryuu was hunting squirells, and Apsu, Bahamut and sweet tiny green Tatsu were speeding along next to her, curious to find out what game their Lorelei was playing.

Lorelei skidded to a stop in front of the room, catching her breath and sliding in the back just in time to catch the last bit about being on time. Ouch. Still, she took her seat, smiling sheepishly if anyone gave her inquisitive looks, and devoted herself to paying attention. Her flitters crawled into her lap, or, in her blue's case, stretched out on the arm of the chair she'd chosen.

A boy, yawing, asked about blood for whers. Lorelei was curious too; knowing very little, she began to wionder if the dragons needed blood as well. She couldn't remember if she'd offered blood to her little ones, but she'd been bitten enough times to make he wonder.

[shadowreine]

Loren had never been late for anything in her life. The only way she would not be on the Sands in time would be if she sprained her ankle or caught a cold or...some good reason, anyway.

She reached up to rub Ivy's breast at the mention of firelizards. It did seem most of those here had one. Not the big quiet guy...he hadn't managed to snag one yet, it seemed. She was happy with her green.

Crucith. Not a sweet green. She made a mental note of that. "I have a question. How long does the Hatching generally take?"

She would imagine they came out pretty quickly, but 'allowed to be a little bit late' implied a certain time lag, between the first and the last hatchlings. They would be...she wondered... They would be cute, of course, young things always were. But they would also be dragons. They would make their choice and she would either be a rider or not.

If she failed, she would still be young enough to join the air force, at least.

Thaddeus lifted one of his large hands. "Sir, how large are the hatchlings?" It seemed a reasonable question. Perhaps a stupid one by the standards of these people, who were accustomed to what he could not help but think of as very large, winged, carnivorous horses.

Of course, being bonded to one would be a far closer relationship than any he had ever had with a mere horse. They were, from what he had seen and been told, quite a bit more intelligent.

Elephants. They were winged elephants...elephants often had one handler their entire lives, retiring together, a close bond that left the survivor deeply bereft if one died before the other. That brought an amusing image, one he had to fight from bubbling out of him into laughter.

Laughter would not be good, especially as there was a military presence here, a discipline not dissimilar from the army. But he could *not* get the image of winged elephants out of his head.

[mimiheart]

Lanrhakah woke with a start,blinking away sleep.
She had only arrived at the weyr a little while ago, brought in from the flooding, and her decision to become a candidate had changed the rest of her life.

But she was not used to the life in a weyr as of yet.
Lanrie got out of bed, got dressed half-asleep, and awoke completely as she read a notice saying that the candidate lesson was in the common room!

Rubbing her eyes, she worked her long, muscled legs to run as fast as she could to the common room.

After becoming lost once, lanrhakah finally found the right place, and walked into the room, a sheepish look on her pale face.
Slipping silently around the doorframe, she stayed quiet and found a seat, hoping her paleness hid her.
Sadly, her tunic was bright red, so most eyes had most likely gone to her.
With a sigh, she settled in the seat and looked towards the candidate master, staring deliberatley over his shoulder.

[Wolfy]

J'kent chuckled as he spotted the three late Candidates, two of the three looking more than a little sheepish on account of their timing. He'd not confront them for now, but wait until the lesson was over.

One of them, the only young man to be late - the others were girls - piped up as soon a he found a seat, asking about knives....knives?! "If you are a dragon candidate, then, no. No knife will be needed to Impress. However, if you are a wher candidate....I have not the slightest idea." He shrugged apologetically, his grin a little lopsided. "I was only ever a candidate for the dragons. If that's what you heard....Guin, is it?....then I would probably think that that is what you need."

The next to question him was a girl with a green firewlizard beside her. "Hatchings can take from just a few minutes to hours on end, depending on the size of the clutch as well as some other factors. Since there are two different clutches on the Sands at the moment, there's a possibility that they will both hatch at once.

"Overall, the length of the Hatching is completely unknown until it happens."

A third question was quick in the coming. J'kent smiled as he heard it. "The size of the dragonets differ with each color. For example, golds will always be the biggest dragonet in their clutch, same as they are the largest dragons when full grown.

"Golds, as I said, are always the biggest dragonets, followed by Bronzes. After that, Brown, Blues, and Greens. And whites, which are still considered the smallest of the Pernese dragons, despite the larger additions since Ruth, the first recorded White dragon in history. When they hatch, they are about 30% of their full growth, give or take a little. Wingspans can be nearly twice their body's entire length. Benden Weyr dragons are by far the largest dragons, at least on Pern. Due to the mix of blood from dragons from several hundred years ago with the more modern Benden dragons, dragon size differs, but it's been evening out more and more in the recent years.

"All in all, sizes can reach from as small as a large dog or as large as a full grown runner - excuse me, horse."

Glancing around and pausing for just a few moments to make sure that there were no more questions at the moment, he continued in his earlier line of thought.

"Jadavath and Crucith, the two Greens with their clutches on the Sands at the moment, are the most unlikely pair to get along. Jadavath - though I've never personally met her - I've heard is actually a nice, kind green. This is her first clutch though. She might be a little finicky when the time comes for her eggs to hatch.

"Crucith, on the other hand, is known for her more cruel persona. She and her rider, Z'volm, was sent here after they were caught driving another dragon into Thread during Threadfall. For those of you who don't know what Thread is, it's a spore of types that falls on Pern regularly, and can also destroy everything that isn't stone or metal. Dragons and riders are regularly killed in accident associated with Thread.

''Crucith is sadistic and more than a little ready to wreak havoc. She might - might - try to hurt one or more of you just for the fun of it. She might hold back, seeing as all of the other dragons are there, but them again, she might not. So be ready to run.

"The clutches' sires will also be there. Zedoreth is the father of jadavath's clutch. He's Weyrling Master L'gar's Brown. Seeth is a newer addition to Rocky Weyr. He was sent here after an accident injured his rider and caused him to become extremely depressed. He's not the nicest brown in the two worlds, but he'll do whatever Sennia, his rider, asks. I met them once. If anyone has a chance to hold bck Crucith, it's them.

"You have to hold your temper in chack throughout the entire hatching, no matter what happens. Anger can and most likely will be seen as a threat by the clutch mothers, and they will act accordingly. Maulings happen fairly often because of this. If this happens, then you need to a) help whoever was mauled, b) get help for whoever was mauled, and c) do not panic. Panic might scare whichever dragonet that is hatched, causing more maulings to take place."

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari raised her hand, calling out a question. "What happens if a hatchling doesn't Impress to someone?"

She had heard some talk about it, but neither Faizah nor Kain would tell her about it. They avoided the subject completely. Christopher couldn't give her an answer, because he wasn't quite sure what she was asking.

Thinking about the little blue, Mentari reached up and stroked him. He was behaving himself very well, and Mentari was proud of him. When this lesson was done she was going to give the blue a treat.

[shadowreine]

Loren digested that. Don't annoy Crucith...or Jadavath, but Crucith was more likely to get annoyed. Be ready to move quickly if anything happened.

There would be four adult dragons, then, on the Sands...two browns and two greens. Greens were the smallest...and from what she had seen, the most common, the most likely color she herself would Impress. She thought she would sooner a blue, though.

"Don't annoy the mothers, don't scare the hatchlings. I'd imagine running would be bad too..." Running from ANY predator was bad, and besides, a dragon hatchling could easily hurt somebody trying to play with them. Perhaps even their own rider.

Still. She had signed up for this, and it was dangerous, yes, but not that dangerous. Soldiers got killed in training accidents all the time.

--

Tad nodded. So...you could not *carry* a dragon hatchling..and physically dominating them was, of course, out of the question. He would have to rely on this mysterious psychic bond to control one. Or work with one...the image of winged elephants came into his mind again.

Dragons were not horses...and a good horse did not need to be dominated or alpha'd by its rider. Therefore, his dragon would not need such treatment either. Whatever dragon bonded to him, if one did, would be more like a good horse that did what its rider wanted because its rider wanted it.

That was what he wanted...something that was like that only much bigger, and with such a beautiful creature. Which could fly. "How likely is it that one or more of the eggs will not hatch?"