[G] [O] [EVENT] 744.12.13 | Hot Chocolate Wonderland

At least Telgar wasn't as cold as High Reaches was.

But it was still cold.

The Candidate cadre, as some were calling it, was currently up at Telgar Weyr, where T'ryn had offered Ereben to come to instead of High Reaches, awaiting the latest clutch to Hatch. When Ereben had said yes to staying at High Reaches, he kind of thought that he was just...stay there. Even though Holdless had the freedom of venturing wherever on Pern they wanted to go, they usually stayed mostly in the same spot because they knew it. So bouncing from Weyr to Weyr was something new. And...honestly...fun.

Well, the not Impressing part wasn't as fun but Ereben didn't think there was a way to make a dragon choose him so he just...had to keep trying.

He knew that he could eventually be too old to Impress but he had Turns on that still so that didn't worry him. So, as long as the dragonriders said he could be a Candidate, he was going to. And he wasn't going to be a lazy slug like some of the other Candidates were, who saw this opportunity as a chance for free room and board. No, Ereben worked -- scrubbing pots in the kitchen, scrubbing dragons at the lake. He was still super surprised whenever a dragon talked to him because that was really fucking cool and he saw it as just another sign that he should be here, doing this, and not hiding in the caves, scared for his life, somewhere else.

And then there was this thing called hot chocolate, which Telgar had, and it was delicious.

Ereben didn't really like klah but he drank it because it was available and he wasn't going to complain but hot chocolate was actually good. And there were these little fluffy things called marshmallows that could be added to it. If they let him, he'd eat just those.

Which was why he was standing just at the entrance to the Dining Hall, drinking his second hot chocolate of the day, his eyes looking up at the sky and wondering if it was going to get colder with those clouds, and trying to figure out what he could do to continue securing his usefulness to the Weyr he was currently at.

T'ryn had flown through his morning paperwork so he could take the twins from Cazan so she could do some of her own work while their youngest, hopefully, continued to sleep peacefully beside her. Ever since his mate found out he had been doing a lot of her Junior Weyrwoman work and threatened to cut him off from sex so he wouldn't overwork himself in every way, T'ryn relented and stopped trying to do everything. Except he did counter with taking the kids more than her throughout the day so Cazan would have a bit more stress-free time to work on leather. They both had varying degrees of guilt when they had to leave the children in the creche--despite his mom working in it and her sometimes watching the kids in the evenings--so they did their best to juggle everything at once instead.

The twins were starting to get to be too big to carry both at the same time, but his offer to hold hands on their walk to the dining cavern had been rejected and then the double pout came out and T'ryn found himself carrying two toddlers all for a late morning snack he could have asked to be delivered to the weyr or his office. Except, he didn't think he (and Cazan) would ever be able to trust such a thing again thanks to the multiple attacks on their lives. They had fallen into the habit of only eating what they purchased themselves at markets or grabbed directly from the dining cavern since they had to put their trust in someone somewhere and doubted anyone would be able to sabotage the main kitchen.

They were almost to the entrance when T'ryn both started to regret the decision to carry the twins and spotted his young friend. He wasn't sure how long Ereben had been in Telgar, presumably for the upcoming Hatching, but now that he knew the man was around, he'd make a point of visiting regularly. "Ereben! It's good to see you," he greeted warmly with a smile while Carynza openly stared at Ereben and Vayren nestled in closer to T'ryn.

"And let me introduce you to my oldest kids. This gawking lady is Carynza and the shy boy is Vayren. They're also getting heavy, so give me a sec." It took a little convincing and a lot of balancing as he crouched, but eventually both kids let go so they could stand on their own and give T'ryn's arms a break. Standing once more himself, T'ryn smiled again, "how have you been?"

Ereben cocked his head at T'ryn, his arms full of toddlers, and said, "You've got kids?" as though it wasn't already apparent. It was more like a weird surprise. Ereben didn't yet associate dragonriders with having kids -- he was still working on that whole "they have dragons" awe. But even before T'ryn could (obviously) answer that, Ereben was looking at the twins with cautioun.

See, Holdless kids -- they were good at being quiet and running. Whenever they met, it was an instant gauge of those things. Would you be the one to get everyone in trouble by talking too loud or would you be the one who got caught? And since Ereben had left his Holdless lifestyle, he had been trying to figure out how he was supposed to relate to youngsters now. He wasn't the youngest Candidate but they were all teenagers, not young young like these two.

So the boy was shy and not really cool with leaving T'ryn's side. But the girl eventually met Ereben's scrutiny, looking into his eyes for long enough for him to awkwardly raise a hand and say, "Hey." Were they even old enough to talk? Ereben had no idea. He'd done his best to stay away from the youngest kids back in Holdless life.

"And they're your oldest kids?" he asked T'ryn. "How many do you have?" Okay, he knew that people had sex but again, dragonriders were still in some weird limbo of just dragonriders, not parents in Ereben's mind. After today, that was probably going to change.

"I'm good," Ereben answered to T'ryn's question about how he was. "Didn't Impress at my first Hatching but...they say that's normal. Still a bummer but whatever. Hey, have you dried this hot chocolate thing?"

T'ryn chuckled at how Ereben seemed to be trying to align him from bronzerider to also a parent. He conceded that wondering if someone had children wasn't something he immediately did either, just like he knew he looked--and was--young. "These two will be three in month five, and we also have Zafris, who is eight months old." It didn't matter that Yfris was technically Zafris' father, not when the lordling didn't want to do the fathering thing and Cazan liked to point out how they had three kids and were a family. Ereben also didn't need to know that detail or how confusing the relationships and arrangements he and Cazan had were.

T'ryn noticed the way Carynza was staring and making Ereben a bit uncomfortable, so he gave her a gentle nudge and whispered for her to say hello--which she did before starting to babble about... something. She was the more talkative of the two, but not everything that came out of her mouth was coherent yet. The healers insisted the twins were both maturing properly, even Vayren with how he often let Carynza talk for them both. When she paused, clearly expecting a reply, T'ryn encouraged Ereben to just give a nod which was enough for the girl who turned her attention to her brother.

"And they would be right," T'ryn agreed, hoping Ereben wouldn't become discouraged or lose hope of Impressing if a few more Hatchings went by without it happening. He also didn't point out that he himself had Impressed at his first Hatching since it really was a rarity. Yes, it happened, but with the amount of Candidates Standing, the odds were low. Ereben probably had that drilled into his head with all of the lessons before and after a Hatching, so he didn't bother with a pep talk, just some excitement at seeing his friend--though said friend quickly changed the subject to hot chocolate which caught the kids' attention.

"Teyyn, I want it," Carynza pointed to Ereben's drink and Vayren nodded in agreement. Of course they did.

"I've had it before, but I'm not big on sweets. The twins, however, love it and I can blame my sister Mylorah for that. She decided she would be the cool aunt that fills them with chocolate and then sends them home." As annoying as it was to deal with the sugar rush and crash, at least Mylorah was willing to watch them sometimes so he had yet to complain about it.

"Let's go inside and get some drinks," T'ryn told his kids, as he waved them inside. Then he turned to Ereben with a grin, "you as well. You brought this chocolatey treat upon us so you get to keep me company a while longer. If you could grab a table and watch them for a minute, I'll get their drinks and snacks."