Poor tired apprentices...
Hall's Lounge
Cozy to the point of downright stuffy this lounge exudes a salty briny air. Overstuffed and comfortable looking are the chairs of dark blue that reside at one end of this circular room. The smattering of tables that they surround are nothing more than tops with scarred wooden legs attached as well they should be. The bases of the tables and chairs are waterstained and marked by mild salt buildup. Rugs worn with age decorate the polished floor of this relaxation area soft greens and browns making barefeet swoon. Paintings of charts and various sea mammals and fish have been painstakingly added to the walls creating the atmosphere of their mother sea. To one side of the bridge is a wide ledge... [look closer]
To the northeast, you see one person.
Settled near the water are Terpsichore, Senile, Minty, and Libra
Swimming about is Tursi
You see Dartboard and Remailla here.
Obvious exits:
Baths Men's Dorms Staff Hall Women's Dorms Infirmary Bridge Sea Lane
Kyu slips quietly in from the Women's Dorms.
Jessa slouches in a chair, a plate of food, of which its contents have been half eaten, balanced on her lap. She has positioned her chair straight back from the dartboard and has a handful of darts in one hand. Lazily she practices throwing them at the board.
Kyu wombles along lazily. Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. Sleepily right into a chair, and plop! Zzzz....
Jessa pauses in the motions of throwing a dart and blinks at Kyu. "Kyu?" She asks, rather puzzled. Not normal behavior, and not safe either. Why the girl could just wander right into the water.
Kyu is tired, and half asleep, yah. Water would wake her up, which would be a good thing. But as it is, nothing's moving her from her comfortable resting place. Not yet... uhhh....
Jessa eyes Kyu, "Kyu? Are you alright?" Because apprentices don't normally stumble around half-asleep. The senior appy shakes her head, and then locates a clean-ish pail and fills it with water, and then dumps it on Kyu. Easy way to wake someone up, isn't it?
Kyu gets wet, obviously. And, just as obviously, fails to wake up. Instead, contented whistles and snores can be heard emnating from her, as a cheeky smile spreads across her face and she lies there, somewhat relaxed. Leave me alone, yah? Can't a fella rest in peace, even if it's not permanent?
Jessa blinks in surprise. That didn't wake the girl? Oy. And here Jess was hoping that Kyu wuold wake up so that Jess could express her concern and tell the girl to not push herself so hard and do so much. The senior appy shrugs and plunks down next to Kyu.
Kyu whistles, somewhat like air through a blowhole. Wheeee..... Squeee..... Tweeee..... and all sorts of onomatopeic sounds issue from her. Although she does appear to be fast asleep, to all observations.
Jessa eyes Kyu and the noises coming from the girl, and then starts to giggle. Because the noises are silly sounding. Jess then stands up and looks around for something or other. Ah ha. A feather. The senior appy slinks over near Kyu and tickles the appy's nose.
Remailla looks over towards Kyu and giggles, "Kyu, 'phin?" she asks Jessa and giggles some more.
Kyu snuckers in her sleep. No, don't ask what a snucker is, I'll tell you. It's when you try and sneeze, and something's in the way, and it comes out as a stuck snicker instead. Or something, yeah. Now can this one get back to sleep.... please?
Jessa stifles a giggle with a hand over her mouth. She grins at Remailla and shakes her head, "No, Kyu is ... Kyu." Simple statement really. She motions the toddler to join her. Perhaps together they'll torture Kyu, and Jess will corrupt Remailla. Bwahaha. The senior appy continues to tickle Kyu's nose with the feather.
Remailla giggles and claps her hands before pushing herself up to her feet. She eagerly toddles over to Jessa, and begins to tickle Kyu. Or rather tries to, unfortunately, her idea of tickling feels more like being pinched.
Senile flutters down from the ceiling beams, recognizing Remailla, surprisingly. He gives a bright chirp and flutters nearby her, eyes whorling in the wild way they normally do.
Remailla giggles at the distraction that Senile presents, "Unk Shad!" she squeals with a great deal of delight as she recognizes the 'lizard.
Remailla is suddenly asleep in a soft lumpy pile of Ailla. *must go.. It got to be later than I thought.*
Kyu ums, and sneezes for real, for once. Does the feather fly? Do feathers fly when they're not attached to birds? Join us in the next episode of Pernese Mysteries. Oh yes, and find out why Kyu is so fast asleep, too.
Feathers do not fly when they are held onto firmly by Jessa. The senior appy grins and tickles Kyu some more. Must be hungover or something. Yeah, that's it. Remailla is eyed, and then Jess shrugs. Oh well. So are toddlers.
Kyu turns in her sleep. Hungover? You know apprentices don't drink. Or aren't supposed to, at any rate. But when they've been up at night planning itty stuff, or tying knots till eyes can't see... then maybe, yes. Tickletickletickle. Or maybe they just have high resistances to tickling. Tickletickletickle.
Jessa continues to tickle Kyu's nose, and then gets an idea and leaves the feather sitting on Kyu's mouth and wanders off to grab a meatroll. The senior appy breaks it up and puts pieces of it all over Kyu's face. For what purpose? Probably some random idea of Jess'.
Somehow, somehow, a tongue lolls out of her mouth. Either something undignified... or has she been taking lessons from Jessa? A crumb is licked up, unconsciously of course. Eeek! The tongue's alive and seeking food! But the other pieces are too far away, and it just hangs to one side, lying in wait, accompanied by them Dance-With-Me whistles.
Jessa grins and leaves the side of Kyu. Jess is influential and all, isn't she? She's teaching the appies all sorts of bad manners regarding eating and all. Yay for Jess! The senior appy slinks over to the water's edge and refills the pail, then proceeds to drip salt water on Kyu's face near her mouth.
Kyu yummies. Saltlicks! As the tongue goes into all sorts of weird acrobatics... maybe it doesn't share its humanpets liking for salty stuff. One can really wonder...
Jessa giggles and continues to drip salt water into Kyu's mouth. This girl is amazing, and amusing. If Jess can ever look at her again without giggling hysterically?
Kyu is saved from the assault by a curious flitter. Who decides that /she/ has to taste what saltwater goes for, too, if you seek it intentionally. So Libra licks. And licks. Mmm, warm...
Jessa giggles, and then wonders just what else she can get Libra and Kyu to eat. The senior appy jumps into the water. She bends over and ducks her head under the water to grab a handful of sand. Then she climbs out and puts the wet sand near Kyu's mouth, and perhaps some does slip into the appy's mouth.
Kyu coughs in her sleep. No, sand is for firelizards and dragons, you wherwhelp! OR sweetsand... but this ain't sweetsand by any stretch of the opinion. Libra takes the ample time to hiss at Jessa. before deciding to fall asleep on her humanself, wings outstretched and covering the face. So there.
Jessa shrugs at the firelizard, and pours more sand on Kyu, spreading the wet sand onto the girl's chest and stomach. Fun fun. And then Jess runs out of sand and returns to the water to fill the pail with heavy, wet sand.
Kyu snorts. Just make sure her face isn't totally covered, yah? She'll survive, but not if... if... someone comes in. Of course, she'll itch too, sand under swimsuit is not good.
Jessa carries the heavy pail over to Kyu and starts to cover the girl in wet sand, applying it liberally to her chest and stomach, and a little bit to her neck and near her mouth, but not near her eyes. Oh no, that'd be bad, and Jess isn't mean.
Kyu shifts. Heavy, itchy... a....choo! It's Mount Kyu erupting, courtesy of the Dolcraft PrankCo. A scared flitter leaves a reddening scratch down the side of her nose, but thankfully her fluttering wings got the sand /away/ from most parts of her face. Unfortunately, it landed in her hair instead, and of course, there's now a lot of sand flying over the lounge.
Jessa grins and gets an idea from the oh so helpful 'lizard. Jess liberally applies the sand to Kyu's hair, then steps back to admire her masterpiece. Hm, something's missing. Jess runs off to the kitchen and returns with some creamy goop and applies it as well. Fun.
And so it stands. Little apprentice, fast asleep. Being really, really decorated. Of course, we'll just have to hope that the food shortage doesn't make people desperate enough to /eat/ her. Oops.
Jessa wouldn't be desperate enough to eat Kyu. She's covered in sand. Yuck. And the senior appy deems her job here done, and moves over to the water to wash her hands, which she dries on her pants, before returning to her chair and eating and throwing darts again.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are © Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2000, all rights
reserved, and used by permission of the author.
|
