Coming out of the Closet (Open to All)

[redwerecat]

((Don't mind me, I'm just making a BAD pun. ))

Rainer was stuck. Hopelessly lost, since he hadn't been in the state of mind to pay attention to where he was going when he'd arrived, he now found himself unfortunately being accosted by all manner of janitorial supplies. He'd been hoping the nondescript brown door had led to the common area of the Weyr, for he really just need to sit down for a while, but he'd ended up guessing wrong.

Of course, being himself, he hadn't bothered to check where he was going (he had had the layout of his previous Weyr memorized, and had foolishly assumed the layout would be similar), and had walked into said supplies without paying attention, and the door had swung shut after him. So there he was. In a room.

It was small, it was smelly, it was cramped, it was dark, and it was a closet.

Way to go, Rainer. You have, once again, managed to screw up quite spectacularly. He chided himself mentally. Good thing his partners hadn't been around. As much as he loved the dragon, Noxceventh was not they type to pretend to humor His to protect him from embarrassment, and would have been roaring in laughter. Thankfully, the big blue was still sleeping off a wearing exercise from the day before, and Rainer's discomfort barely registered in the dragon's dream-filled mind.

Now the question was, how to exit the closet without making a fool of himself. He could dash out and hope no one saw, but that would look ridiculous. He could also just stroll out casually, and pretend as if it had all been intentional, but what if there were someone out there he wanted to impress? The bluerider had seen more than a few highly attractive weyrlings in the few day's he'd been here, and to embarrass himself like that nearly mortified the stoic man.

Rainer certainly didn't wish to look foolish; he had pride, after all. Probably more than was healthy, too, but a great deal of his arrogance had been cut away by recent events, especially the ones leading up to his new home at Rocky.
Still. Pride, he had it, and he would like to hold on to it.

As Murphy's law would have it, though, he stepped backwards, caught his foot in a bucket, and lost his balance, crashing back through the closet door into the hallway with a loud clatter, ending up with his coat flipped over his head, his legs sticking up in the air, in a very compromising position with a mop. And he appeared to smell of what the bottle label next to him read off as "Pine-Sol."

Goodbye, dignity.

[Wesku]

T'sai walked down the hallway with a bemused expression on his face. He was new to the Weyr and had not had enough time to thoroughly explore and map the place yet. The only reason he was a out and about at the moment was because his Brown had just woken and was currently sulking in his weyr. That and T'sai was ravenous, but had yet to find the kitchen.

Just as he was rounding one of the corners, T'sai heard a crash and watched as an older man tumbled out of what appeared to be a closet. Concerned for the man's safety, T'sai rushed over and offered his help.

"Are you alright? You are not injured anywhere are you?"

T'sai asked as he offered his hand to help the man up.

[PhazonDragon]

[ooc: lol puns = <3]

With the awful weather, Ku'rt resigned to stay inside the weyr. Rather than his usual 'travel everywhere outside with Aricoth' attitude, Ku'rt was stuck navigating the hallways and corridors of Rocky Weyr. Of course, he wasn't new to the weyr, so he knew his way around, but with the blind blue that he Impressed to, it was hard leaving him behind, especially a dragon so timid and afraid of being alone. Blindness combined with a timid personality wasn't the best, was it? He was bonded to the blue, so he couldn't very well ignore the worried and pleading thoughts that he was sent every couple of seconds. Thankfully, the blue was fast asleep inside his weyr, with Luna curled up on his back to comfort Aricoth. Ku'rt was able to travel about in peace.

Ku'rt adjusted his weyrling knot, feeling out of place, being one of the few that still wore the knotted rope. He was a Pernese weyrling, and just because he was on Earth, he wasn't going to detach himself from his roots in Pern. The weyrling knot stayed. As soon as his graduated to rider, Ku'rt would take Aricoth and Luna back to Pern, to visit Telgar Weyr again, and hopefully an older rider would show him what a rider's knot looked like, so that the weyrling could proudly wear it on Earth. Lost in his thoughts for the future, Ku'rt walked through an intersection of hallways, going straight, when a loud clattering caught his attention, pulling the blue weyrling out of his silent reflection. Ku'rt did a double-take, take a few steps backward to stick his head out into one of the side hallways. Nothing down there--Ku'rt turned to look down the other hallway, spotting a man who had fallen over, and another man, standing nearby, hold his hand out.

Neither of these two Ku'rt knew. They must be more recent arrivals to Rocky. Faced with the prospect of becoming acquanted with someone new, Ku'rt's face spread into a wide grin, slightly opening his mouth. "Hello down there!" Ku'rt called, waving his arm to get the attention of the two men. Ku'rt jogged over to them, about half a dragonlength away. "That sounded like a nasty fall," Ku'rt commented, looking the man up and down. The weyrling raised an eyebrow at the closet door that was ajar. "Did you just fall out of that closet?" he had to wonder, trying to piece together what may have happened. Cleaning supplies lay strewn across the immediate area around the man. He probably did fall out of it.

[redwerecat]

Rainer sighed loudly, mentally trying to see if he could possibly force spontaneous combustion through sheer force of will. It wasn't working.

"Injured? No. Alright? Hardly even the same category of NO." He snapped, though the snippiness was directed at no one but himself. And he made that clear as he accepted the offered hand, and pulled himself to his feet, smiling somewhat distantly at the dark-haired weyrling.
"I think I got sexually assaulted by a sponge." He said conversationally, examining the offending yellow item as he fished it out of the tangle of his coat. "Honestly, that's a new one, even for me."

He was distracted from saying anything else ridiculous when a black-haired boy waved at them from down the hall. Shrugging, and casually lifting a hand in a lazy wave back at him, Rainer couldn't help but smile at the emphatic greeting. The boy was cute, and really, come on, with that sort of cheer, who could not smile back?

"Did I fall out of the closet? Heavens no." Rainer said, deadpan. "Actually, I was developing a new floor-cleaning technique; it involves dousing myself in this infernal-smelling liquid and rolling along the floor. It's like swimming, almost." He punctuated his oh-so-serious statement with vague swimming motions withhis hands. "You see? I just got distracted by the sponge. Accosted me; the mop was only trying to help."

Well, if you can't laugh at yourself, what was the purpose of trying?

[Wesku]

T'sai pulled the man to his feet, and was about to say something when another man called out to them. T'sai turned and nodded a greeting in a formal manner with a step backwards as an invitation to the welcome company.

The other two riders started up a conversation while T'sai listened. He quickly became lost when the almost silver haired man began talking about how cleaning supplies had begun to 'accost' him. Raising an eyebrow at that, T'sai thought he would just go with the flow.

"Sponges and mops can be down right predatory, but you know who you really have to look out for?"

T'sai looked over at one particular cleaning supply and lowered his voice.

"I hear the bucket is ten times worse than a sponge will ever be. I mean seriously, a bucket gets both a sponge and mop wet. You should really count yourself lucky. Those buckets will just reach out and grab you."

Grinning like a schoolboy, T'sai tried not to laugh. It was hard, but he managed. This man was so much fun. T'sai couldn't help but try to keep up.

[PhazonDragon]

Ku'rt blinked as the man nonchalantly said that he didn't fall out of the closet. The weyrling skeptically looked at the man, who had stood up now. "Oh, a new cleaning technique," Ku'rt nodded solemnly, playing along. "Yes, it is very different here on Earth... Can't really use the same methods that I used on Pern." He crossed his arms and looked thoughtfully down at the mess. "You were doing so well though. Those pesky sponges. They always get in everyone's way."

"Sponges and mops can be down right predatory, but you know who you really have to look out for?" the other man started to say.

As he lowered his voice to a whisper, Ku'rt hunched over, staring at T'sai with wide eyes. "Who?" Ku'rt asked in a voice that was so soft, it hardly counted as a whisper. He followed the man's gaze to where the accused laid, the bucket. "No, not the bucket. They're so deadly," Ku'rt murmured under his breath as T'sai described the violent buckets. "I can't believe you made it out alive there. Good job!" The weyrling said, his face lighting up in a smile again.

[redwerecat]

Rainer abruptly decided he really could get to liking it here. No one gave him any weird looks for playing up the ridiculousness of the situation; shards, they were even playing along! He made an expression of mock horror, and whirled around to regard the bucket warily.

"No! Do not utter such horrors, my good man!" He said, throwing a hand to his forehead like he was having the vapors. "I cannot take it; these cursed cleaning tools are to be the death of me..." he said breathily, as if his life were fading. He peeked through his fingers at the weyrling who spoke next and nodded solemnly.
"Oh, indeed. I barely escaped with my life. I find myself wondering if I shall ever be the same."

He shook his head sadly and winked at both of the weyrlings. "But alas, that is the price to pay for attempting to clean the floors in a Weyr using your clothing and the backstroke. I should have expected the blasted predatory buckets to try to stop me! You know how they feel about proper floor cleanliness." He said, nodding sagely. "They're almost as bad as angry Weyrwomen. Only much ...um. More... buckety?" He ran out of ways to describe buckets, and had to settle for that last bit of nonsense.

Still, a good time was being had by all. And this certainly beat moping or pretending as if he were planning on getting something productive done, right?

[Wesku]

T'sai lifted an eyebrow at the term 'backstroke', but managed to reign in his amused smirk. This man amused him, and T'sai didn't want to interrupt or interfere in any way. However, when the other man ended on the term, 'buckety', T'sai couldn't help but let out a small chuckle.

"Ah, I see the similarities. Both a bucket and a Weyrwoman come in different shapes and sizes. Some are loud and some are quiet, but all are out to snag you and reel you in like so many weyrlings or mops."

Looking at the other rider, T'sai awaited his view on the comparison.

[PhazonDragon]

"Just barely escaped... with your life," Ku'rt wordlessly breathed, his smile falling as he put his hand up to his mouth to gasp in fake surprise. "It's so brave and daring," he commented, quite enjoying the amusing conversation. Especially that last remark about the weyrwoman. Comparing the Weyrwoman to a bucket. Absurd! But at the same time, Ku'rt couldn't keep himself from laughing. He broke character, nearly doubling over in laughter. "I would have never compared a weyrwoman to a bucket!" he managed to squeak out as he gasped for a breath in between bursts of laughter.

"It's a very good comparison!" the weyrling finally said after he had calmed himself. The echoing of his laughs reverberated down the hallway, and Ku'rt now blushed a bright red. "Oh, I am sorry..." he muttered. "That was very loud. I guess I just like to laugh!" Ku'rt forced a grin, though he was still flushed in the face. He lowered his eyes, embarrassed, and caught sight of the cleaning supplies still strewn across the floor. Someone would be angry if they left them there--not that self-respecting dragonriders would ever do that, but still. Anything to take his mind of his recent giggling fit.

"W-we should clean this mess up, wouldn't you say?" Ku'rt wondered out loud, about ready to ask the two riders to help him, only to remember that he didn't know their names. He blushed again at realizing this, but the fact that he was now walking towards the cleaning supplies, and crouching down to pick them up, hid his face from the two older men. The talk about the dangerous bucket made Ku'rt skirt around the one laying innocently on the floor, and the weyrling went for the squirt bottles to the side.