[G] [C] [E] 738.11.07 | Snacks Make Everything Better

Nerreh had never cared much about the mating cycles of dragons, but now that she had been granted the official status of Candidate it suddenly became rather important. Specifically, why weren't any golds Rising, damnit, she was so close! The newly minted Candidate cursed under her breath, viciously taking a bite out of the roll she had pilfered from the kitchens. Nerreh grumbled some more, and gently thunked her head back against the wall of the unused weyr she had taken to hiding away in when she wanted to be alone.

There hadto be a gold who was going to Rise soon, there had only been one Hatching so far that Turn, and there were plenty of golds - a good handful at least - so why weren't they getting it on? And laying a gold egg, since they only wanted to put girls on the Sand when there was a gold egg. Nerreh had been old enough for the last Clutch, but there hadn't been a gold, so they hadn't let her Stand. Bastards. She took another aggressive bite out of her roll.

Nerreh knew there was a dragon in her future, and wasn't going to be gold. She knew it, she knew it (just as much as she was afraid she was wrong). But damn, this nebulous period of uncertainty was awful. Nerreh wanted to know now.

Finishing off her stolen snack, Nerreh took a few long, deep breaths. As therapeutic as it could sometimes be, hiding in an abandoned weyr and smacking her head against the wall didn't really help much. More food might help, Nerreh thought, brushing some crumbs off her pants where they had fallen. The kitchens might have some desserts made by now. Those were even better than rolls. Increasingly satisfied with this plan, Nerreh stood up, stretched, and strolled out of the weyr, headed for the kitchens.

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Event word bolded

Anyone's welcome to join! Run into Nerreh in the hallway, the kitchens, whatever works. =)

When Madiquel asked for a ride to Telgar Weyr so she could see Ayontay, R’dare offered to bring her. He had finished what few tasks he had already and wouldn’t mind seeing their young friend either. R’dal was off napping, unsurprisingly, so it was the perfect time to go find someone else to pester since his usual partner in crime wasn’t available and they had all learned a long time ago that when R’dal decided it was nap time, it was best to leave him to it.

He spent a little time with the two but then excused himself to leave them to their own devices for a bit. He knew if he didn’t return before they wanted him back that one of their firelizards would find him. Having no real plan after leaving Ayontay’s room, R’dare decided he was a bit hungry and wondered if the kitchen workers would sneak him something sweet and delicious to snack on. He adored those that worked in the Fort kitchens but a couple ladies he could recall pestering since he was knee high stayed on at Telgar and R’dare had to admit that he missed their baking and the way they’d always slip him a bun or cookie if he ran through the kitchen in Katila.

With a smile on his face and a trip over boot lace that was quickly laced back up, R’dare headed off to the kitchen to see what he could get away with now that he was days away from turning seventeen. Seventeen! He was getting so old, he chuckled to himself, remembering conversations lost to time when they were all younger and deciding what made someone old and what they would be doing in so many turns.

As he rounded the bend, he spotted a familiar figure he hadn’t seen for a bit and his smile grew. He thought about sneaking up on her but he remembered when R’dal did that and earned a punch to his arm for his efforts. R’dare himself had learned the same lesson but from Indivara. He could still hear Kerrin and Ryvian trying not to laugh too loudly as they witnessed it.

“Hey, Nerreh! Sweet tooth got the best of you as well, eh?”

The unexpected voice had Nerreh spinning around to face the speaker, arms immediately raising to a defensive position. The presence of an unknown person had anxiety spiking for a moment before calming back down as she realized who it was.

"Hey, Ra-R'dare," Nerreh said, carefully using the bluerider's new name instead of his old nickname - just in case, though she didn't figure R'dare would care too much. Having grown up with him, Nerreh knew how laid-back he could be about things. Hopefully childhood nicknames were still allowed. Nerreh loved using nicknames for people, and a few of the weyrbrats they'd grown up with insisted on their honorific names only now. Boring. She grinned widely at her childhood friend. "Fancy seeing you in Telgar again. What're you doing here?" She asked, replaying his greeting in her head.

"You're headed to the kitchen too, then? Care to team up? I bet we can get more deserts with the 'R'dare's visiting and likes the food here better than at Fort, let him taste some real food for an evening' ploy than I could alone. You in?" She asked, making her eyes widen in feigned innocence as she mimicked the story for the kitchen workers. Not that she couldn't sidle in by herself and snatch a treat or two, but this way had the possibility of being even more profitable. Plus, she got to spend time with R'dare, who she hadn't seen in ages. Nerreh looked at him hopefully, keeping a touch of that feigned innocence in her eyes.

R’dare grinned at the greeting, glad he had kept space between them before startling Nerreh, but also amused by how she caught herself on his name. He didn’t care if his friends still used his full name or nickname; he did that with several of their dragonriding friends as well. But he didn’t point it out to Nerreh, letting her figure it out later. There was food waiting for them!

“Madi asked for a ride so she could visit with Ayontay and I never mind bringing her where she needs to go,” he didn’t get roped into ferrying people too often on a more professional level now that there were more graduated dragonriders to get stuck with it and Kadaisicalth liked to make the trips and help out, while he always had friends to visit as well. It was win-win for all concerned.

“Team up? Nah, I work better alone,” R’dare held his serious expression for all of two seconds before breaking into a grin and sticking his tongue out at Nerreh. He grabbed her hand as he started to walk again down the hall again with a little laugh. “That was exactly the angle I was going to go for and I can’t see them giving me something and ignoring you. Especially if I give a little pout along the way about needing someone to eat with so I don’t feel alone.”

It took a moment for Nerreh to figure out who 'Madi' referred to, before remembering Madiquel. The girl was only a few turns younger, and Nerreh certainly remembered her, but they had never spent all too much time together, so it took a moment for the nickname to bring up a face. For the same reason she didn't know Madiquel she wasn't overly familiar with the other person R'dare named; Nerreh knew Ayontay, but she had always insisted on playing with the boys, and Madiquel and Ayontay hadn't really run in the same circle. She nodded at the explanation in understanding. Young riders you had beaten in games as a kid were the easiest to talk into taking you somewhere outside the Weyr. Madiquel knew how to get things done, asking R'dare.

Nerreh rolled her eyes at R'dare's 'I work better alone' statement, recognizing it as the joke (and utter bullshit, honestly) it was. She frowned when he grabbed her hand and started pulling her towards the kitchen. Getting pulled around wasn't exactly something she was fond of, but unlike most boys (or men), Nerreh knew R'dare didn't mean anything by it, so she didn't say anything or jerk her hand away.

"It is the best angle in this situation, after all." She said a bit haughtily, ignoring her discomfort from the grabbing and dragging. The pair reached the kitchens in a few minutes, chatting idly about what their lives had been like since they had seen each other last. When they reached the kitchens, Nerreh glanced around, looking for the cooks who had been in Katila. There were still a good number around, but their numbers had been bolstered with Holdfolk and others in the turns since the dragonriders had returned North. She quickly spotted a woman she remembered from Katila, but continued past her, recalling that the woman was less fond of the weyrbrats as some of the others. Eventually she found a suitable 'target,' nodding at the woman so R'dare would know the plan, and started pushing him in that direction, calling out to the woman by name as they walked over (Calling the kitchen workers by name almost always got good results. They liked being remembered.).

"Look who's back at Telgar! You remember R'dare, right?" Nerreh said brightly, giving R'dare a little shove forward.

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feel free to say anything/ask questions of Nerreh/etc in the 'idle chat' bit, I just couldn't think of any dialogue to put there, aha...

R’dare happily answered questions about himself, their friends, or Fort in general and traded some light banter with Nerreh as they walked with a purpose. Snacks, sweet delicious snacks in particular, were always worth a purposeful stride instead of his usual laidback meandering. You didn’t need to rush through life—unless sweets or a friend in need were involved. When they reached the kitchen, the conversation about the awkward place the latest green flight had landed the lusty couple came to an abrupt end and R’dare easily fell into his role of embarrassed guest being pushed about and shown off to everyone.

He smiled and waved, genuinely happy to see familiar faces scattered about and tripped a bit over his own feet when Nerreh shoved him forward. Catching himself before he face planted or took out the evening meal’s preparations, R’dare gave an embarrassed chuckle and ran a hand through his hair. He traded some pleasantries, checking up on the woman’s health and what she had been up to recently before the questions were turned back on him and he gave a vague shrug, being a typical teenager without any serious commitments since Wings hadn’t started back up yet.

He paused for a moment, watching her work on the pastry dough she was rolling before lowering his voice to conspiratorial tones, “to be honest, I offered to bring Madiquel here because I miss the cooking here. Fort is good but it’s just not the same. You, especially, know how to make cinnamon rolls and they hardly make them at home,” he added a little pout to his last word and kept his gaze from wandering over to the finished rolls he had already spied on their way in. He smelled the cinnamon as they approached and knew before walking through the door what his target food was going to be.

Nerreh paid little attention to R’dare’s conversation with the cook, occasionally nodding emphatically to support whatever the young bluerider was saying. She hadn’t checked what each person was making when she had chosen who to speak to, focusing more on who, not what, but the cinnamon rolls this cook was making were going to be an excellent outcome. Cinnamon was one of Nerreh’s favorites. Her firelizard, Spice, was even partially named after the stuff. She took a deep breath in, lungs filling with the warm scents of the kitchens.

Being in the kitchens was nice, in Nerreh’s opinion. Nice if you were just stopping in to eat, beg, or steal some food anyway, not so nice to work there. The Candidate had heard many times over the turns that maybe, if she liked the kitchens so much, she should work there. Yeah right. As much as Nerreh liked the smell of cinnamon or the taste of the food, she could never work here. She’d feel enclosed and break something within a seven day. Hopefully (so, so hopefully) she would Impress a dragon and finding something else to do would never be an issue. But damn, she was not going to be a kitchen worker. Or a cleaning drudge, ugh. She could maybe work with the food animals for the dragons. But kitchens? No way, they are for tasty snacks, not working.

Shaking off her mental tangent, Nerreh focused back in on the conversation at hand. While her mind had been wandering, R’dare had scored a fairly large number of cinnamon rolls, tucked into a cloth napkin that the amiable cook had gifted him, happy to have such a flattering guest. The pair thanked her profusely, staying an extra few minutes to make it less obvious they were only there for the food. Eventually, they said their goodbyes and left the kitchen to find a nice place to sit and eat their spoils. Nerreh swiped a roll peeking out of the folded napkin and took a bite out of it, humming in appreciation.

“Goof job,” She said, words garbled slightly by the food in her mouth, “Worked so much better than what I could’ve done alone. Thankfs.” The last word was said as she took another bite, and accompanied by Nerreh giving R’dare an appreciative pat on the arm.

R’dare grinned as he watched Nerreh dive right into their prized score of cinnamon rolls before following suit and swiping one for himself. The first bite was divine and his eyes slid shut as he savoured it. He definitely missed this! He wondered if he should find more reasons to visit around meal times, running errands for the older riders in exchange for cinnamon buns. He mentally chided himself for thinking with his stomach but still squashed the idea of saving a bun for R’dal or Madiquel. They could work for their own delicious snack.

“You’re welcome,” R’dare managed to get the words out between bites and when his mind wasn’t wandering to ways to get more properly cooked treats that didn’t involve him learning to cook. “We’ll have to do it again sometime.” He wouldn’t do it every time he came over since then it’d start to look suspicious, especially if they were always together not-quite-begging for handouts between meals.

As he started in on a second roll, a green firelizard popped in from between in front of him and R’dare flinched both from the blast of cold in his face and the surprise. “Clover! Is it time already?” He doubted Madiquel wanted to leave already, unless Ayontay upset her but he doubted that would happen. It was more likely he lost track of the time and when he said he’d come back and hang out with them. He had only mentioned doing an errand or two while the two spend time together before he became the third wheel. Breaking off a small piece of his roll for Clover to nibble on, R’dare promised he’d be along shortly.

“I guess I better get a move on,” he popped the rest of the roll in his mouth and dusted his hands free of crumbs as he got up. “It’s been a pleasure working with you,” R’dare grinned and gave an exaggerated bow before turning on his heel to begin his stroll back to Ayontay’s room.

Nerreh nodded in agreement to R'dare's proposal that they team up for snacks again, leaning forward to take another roll.

"Mh hmn. Come pick me up sometime and we can reverse the ploy at Fort, hmn? There's gotta be a good cook of something over there." She said thoughtfully before taking a bite of her new roll. She jumped a little at the appearance of the firelizard, doing her best to hide her reaction. Nerreh had her own firelizard, she didn't get startled by them appearing. Nope, not at all.

"Good luck," She told R'dare as he stood up to leave. "Give Kadaisicalth some pats from me, yeah?" As he mock-bowed to her, Nerreh stuck her tongue out at him, though he missed the action due to turning and leaving directly from the bow. She shrugged, uncaring if he saw her childish response, and considered the remaining cinnamon roll. Best to eat it them all while they're still warm, she decided, stuffing the rest of her partially eaten roll in her mouth, determined to finish them off before they cold, even if she made herself ill or covered her face in sticky cinnamon sugar in the process.