Raid the kitchen! Attack of the hungry riders!
You head to the inner caverns.
Inner Caverns
The larger first chamber is at the height of roughly that of three grown adults, with the ceiling and walls rather smooth cut stone. The walls are dotted at regular intervals with metal sconces that are filled and refreshed with glows, the light providing a constant soft ambience no matter the time of day for not all that much light filters in from the outside. Two wooden doors along the southeastern part of the wall are labeled "In" and "Out" are used frequently by the kitchen workers to keep this cavern well stocked. The first chamber appears to act much like a dining hall, rows of tables spread out and worn benches offering a perch to the residents and riders as they cycle through the daily mealtimes. Several hearths have been constructed along the north and west walls, providing both practical warmth and a place for the night hearth to be kept with its simmer of stew and hours old klah. A raised dais is set along the north wall, where the Weyr's leaders eat and important announcements are made. Further in are two more medium sized chambers with naturally arced ceilings that act in a multi-purpose capacity, and beyond them tunnels lead even deeper into the depths of the stone to the Weyr supply stores.
The morning is busy, kitchen staff bustling to cover the breakfast shifts. Children cry playfully as they awaken to the day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~< Room Contents >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Players: R'yn, Y'sian, Rayne, and Nadina
Dragons:
Other:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~< Obvious Exits >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
West -*- Crafts Main Hall
South -*- Stores
SouthEast -*- Kitchen
East -*- West Bowl
Y'sian merely shakes his head. "I'm not sure I want you making me something pretty Rayne. I'm not wearing a dress for you, no matter how much you ask." He looks a bit sulky again. "Of course, I'm up for a raid. Are we heading back to your weyr after this, or staying around here?"
"You really are helpless. I think I need to talk to your wingleader about assigning you some more duties." Rayne looks around, spotting one of the weyrlings, nodding in his direction. "See, there are little ones about, you should set a better example. You, come here." She points at Ryn, beckoning him over. "I am obviously a bad person, but I can't remember your name. Donath's rider, right?"
R'yn has just come in, stomach growling audibly. "Yeah. R'yn, green Donath's weyrling." He corrects Rayne nervously. "Donath is only a couple months old." R'yn says shyly. "You mean a kitchen raid? I'm up for it. Starvin over here." His rumbling stomach makes its opinion known. Chow time!
Y'sian merely smirks. "I'm not helpless. I just prefer to do as little as possible for as long as possible. Much better for life, that way." He arches an eyebrow as the goldrider stops. "Adding on to your harem, dear? I quite think I'm jealous. Possibly heartbroken, as well."
Rayne waves a hand in dismissal at R'yn. "Well, that's good to know. Would hate to think we're Searching the play pins now." She winks candidly at the lad and reaches an arm around Y'sian. "Y'sian, you shouldn't say such horrible things about me. Whatever will the children think?" She glances around the cavern, noting the traffic. In a loud voice, she announces "Rider raid on the kitchen!" Come get it while it's hot!" She grins at her small audience of R'yn and Y'sian. "Let's see who else is being lazy today. I'll be sure to make a list."
Making his way into the Inner Caverns is Mel'tar, humming quietly under his throat as usual as he carries himself with his usual confident swagger. As usual, the wing leader has been swamped with work as of late, and having found a few minutes of downtime, he decides to spend it amidst the people of the Weyr, and mingle. Bolstering a wide smile upon his face, he gives a wave to a few that he is familiar with gathered about, angling himself for a table to settle into.
R'yn winks at Rayne. "Oh I'm never lazy ma'am. I've been working hard with my green to learn everything a rider needs to know. And Donath is as eager to learn as I am." R'yn rubs his hands together with the air of somebody not used to breaking rules. Or kitchen raids. "Funtime!" He says cheerfully. "Be still my rumbling stomach!"
Y'sian moves to gently brush a hand over Rayne's shoulder, before he offers a slight smile. "Actually love. I need to head out for the moment. I think I've sweeps in a little over an hour or so and I should probably get ready for them. Perhaps I'll catch up with you later?"
Rayne laughs at R'yn's comment, then shakes her head at Y'sian. "Ah, remember when we were so young and eager?" The sarcasm in her voice adds to doubt to the truth of that statement. "Shards, Y'sian, are you being respectable, or hiding because Mel'tar is about?" She leans into him and kisses his neck before pushing him away. "Now go be a good little blue rider." As the man leaves, Rayne takes one last glance around. "Come on, folks, hellooo.. kitchen raid... stoping being so productive!" And entertain her, duh. "Well, R'yn, looks like it may be just us. I should let you know that the weyrlingmaster hates my being and will quite likely not approve of anything we're about to do." She adds a note of challenge to the plain truth, allowing the lad to make his own choice. "Of course, you could always just stay out here and being the good little weyrling."
Glancing upwards as Rayne calls out, Mel'tar offers up a smile, raising a brow in her direction. "What's cooking that's worth eating?" He calls out with a strong voice of baritone as he pushes himself up to his feet, sniffing the air curiously to try and spy what may be simmering in the back rooms. As he catches his name tossed, a look of amusement falls over his face as he ambles over towards them, folding his arms over his chest. "Who is trying to hide from me?" He asks with a laugh as he turns his attention upon the gold rider, giving her his usual friendly smile upon his face.
R'yn grins. "You kidding? I'm good, but thats because I don't have a reason to be bad." He grins. "You should ask my old classmates at the weavercraft hall about the /one time/ I did pull a prank, technically more of a payback thing but....."
Rayne smiles her most pleasant smile at Mel'tar. "Well, wingleader, I guess you'll never know! But come, come, I have no idea what they've got in the kitchen but I intend to make it interesting and I'm *starving*." She takes Mel'tar by the elbow and begins leading him towards the doors of the kitchen. "And while we conduct this, um, official inspection, you can tell me all the news this good little gold rider should know. You know, things like wing strength, illnesses, good gossip." She glances behind her to see if R'yn has decided to follow. "Oh really. Well come along, I'm getting grumpy."
Kitchen
The kitchen is an absolutely huge facility located at the northern end of the main residential building. The ceiling is two stories above, allowing some reprieve from the heat generated by the various cooking activities. The kitchen is as carefully laid out working from preparation areas to cooking to cooling it has it all. Long wooden cabinets are capped by durable stone counter tops for utensil storage and food preparations. Elongated windows bring light to the preparation area and offer a glimpse outside to the hard workers. All manner of pots and pans can be found hanging from hooks along the walls as one shifts into the primary cooking areas. A series of six ovens, and a dozen coal fired stoves provide the necessary heating for everything from baking bread and pies to frying fish or steaming vegetables. Four open hearths are usually stoked by firewood to heat the batches of soup or stew in enormous copper kettles. A smaller area to the back looks perfect for cooling newly baked cookies and bread with on racks stacked six feet high. A full third of the area is taken up by a series of sinks. It is nearest the doorway into the inner caverns handling the washing, drying, sorting and storage of dishes. A pipe sticks out of the wall, the steady flow of water filling a semi-circle stone well centered between the dish and cooking areas from which the water is taken by bucket or cup as needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~< Room Contents >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Players: R'yn and Rayne
Dragons:
Other:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~< Obvious Exits >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
South -*- Living Area
NorthWest -*- Inner Caverns
As Rayne enters the room, followed by the riders, several kitchen aunties seem to begin clucking in unison. "Rider, you shouldn't be back here! We'll bring to you! To you!" The gold rider simply waves the woman off. "Just get out of the way and I promise we'll only make a small mess." She shoos away others, and begins opening cabinets at random. "R'yn, see what's good on the spits. There's got to be some good meat roasting somewhere."
"Gossip, huh? Unfortunately I am hardly one to hear or spread much of it." Mel'tar says as he hooks his arm into the gold rider's with a grin upon his face, striding easily into the kitchen with a proud gait. "Though, my wing is doing just fine these days. Decided to call us Avalanche, since we're the primary offense for the thread fall strikes." With another sniff to the air, he seems to approve of the warm, yummy smells coming out of the kitchen. "So, I take it that we are serving the people for a change?" He asks as he washes his hands first in one of the sinks, shivering at the cold water which pours out onto his fingers, then dries them off on a fluffy cloth. "I make a mean steak if need be." He says.
R'yn nods and moves for the spits, soothing the spit canines so that they don't make a mess. "Shush boy, shush....." He grins. "Porcine over here." He keeps the otherwise rambunctious spit canines quiet with a soothing scratch behind the ears. "Oh I know you, you're the canine that broke mister fluffy's arm. I had to mend that toy feline I'll have you know." He croons.
Inara slouches in, trying to hard to go unnoticed as she searches out some good thing or two that some might have overlooked. There's a grimace when other voices are noted and the one she zeros in on is that belonging to the bronzer she's wiled away a night and a day with only so recently. "Bubblies over there." she calls out trying to cause a distraction so she can hit the stew pot.
Rayne sighs at Mel'Tar. "Really Mel'Tar, don't be such a bore. A little gossip is good for the weyr. Keeps our minds off more important things." Bumping another drudge out of the way, she pulls down a bowl and various spices. "Hmm, fetch a plate, R'yn, and get some good pieces of the porcine. And no, nothing so noble as serving others, Mel'Tar. I'm in this for myself. The rest of you simply get to benefit from my generosity." She smiles her most winning 'see, I can be nice' smile and begins mixing a few random spices after a quick taste test of each. Finger in her mouth, she turns at Inara's voice and waves her free hand. "That's the spirit! Grab a few and bring them over." Rayne has no issue with involuntary enlistment.
R'yn slices some pieces from the side of the porcine, "ooooh, she stuffed it with nuts, bread and sausage." R'yn hums in delight as he scoops a good helping of stuffing onto the plate next to the porcine slices. He drops a sliver for the spit canine guarding the roast and carries the plate over to Rayne. "Here we go ma'am."
"Well, I suppose I know a little gossip here and there, though it is hardly anything worth getting excited over. Though I did catch a rumor that a certain brown rider who 'claims' to be quite the ladies man, is actually a man's man." Mel'tar hums to himself a bit as he bumps his hip against Rayne's as he passes by, tossing her a knowing look. "G'rith always brags that he can have any lady he wishes, but one of the staff told me he caught him, and another guy getting all sorts of cozy the other night at the bathing caverns. Then again, he said it was dark, but... he was sure it was another guy." The bronze rider looks amused as he shrugs his broadened shoulders up a bit, before plucking out some meat rolls from the ice boxes to warm up. "Evening, Inara." He calls over to his green riding friend, offering her a warm, and friendly smile.
Inara captures both bubbles and rolls along with something else in another basket before joining the group. "Evening Mel'tar." comes as she sets her finds along with the rest, "Don't be a party pooper Mel'tar go grab some klah or the stew." Listening to all the banter, Inara stays quiet for a while. "Have to admit Mel that you are by far more interesting and entertaining for a woman then he is."
Rayne takes the plate. "Thank you, sir." She breathes deeply, taking in the fresh aroma of the porcine meat. "Hmm, I definitely think this could use some spicing up. The stuffing is a nice touch, but the food here is so bland!" The last bit is mentioned rather loudly, to hopefully be overheard by the kitchen staff. Placing the plate down on a counter, she takes a slice of the meat and rubs it with the various spices she's mixed together. At being bumped by Mel'Tar, she opens her mouth, then instead shoots him a mock glare. "Careful, Mel, or you'll start a few new rumors." She eyes Inara, then grins. "And G'rith doesn't surprise me, honestly. He should just get over himself. The male pairings don't seem to lack for fun!" She gets back to work, sprinkling the meat with the spices. "Ah, this should help things. Here, R'yn, sit these over one of the warming fires for a few moments. And you'll have something with some real taste!" She passes the plate of meat back to the weyrling before clearing space on the counter, where she quickly takes a seat.
R'yn blushes at the mention of a brownriding mans man. "Sounds........ appealing." R'yn mumbles. "Being flexible is only a bonus." He mumbles. He takes the plate and nods, heating it over one of the warming fires as reccomended. "Hmmmm...." He pokes the still warming plate with a fork experimentally and takes a deep whiff. "Now thats love right there."
"I don't mind being apart of the rumors, as long as they're really good ones." Mel'tar says with a laugh as he rubs the back of his neck some, giving Rayne a wink as he plucks up the pitcher of klah in one arm, then balances the stew in the other. "Besides, I've yet to have a gold rider on my arm." He says, then pauses. "Or even a woman on my arm for any long period of time." He says with a wry look upon his face as he shrugs once more. With a tilt of his head to Inara, he says, "You think I'm interesting?" He laughs. "If you go for the overworked quiet type."
R'ico comes in, pulling oof his knit gloves? He sniffs to see what's cooking.
Inara looks to Mel'tar and nods before actually blushing at Rayne's words. "I...uh..." and that is her answer to Rayne. "Yes I find you interesting, very interesting." but she doesn't go into much more depth then that. "I'm surprised you don't have a female snuggled into your bed all the time, I found them extremely comfy."
Rayne overhears R'yn's exclamation and nods. "See, let it never be said that I didn't do something kindly for the rest of the weyr." As the aroma of the sizzling meat comes her direction, she jumps down off the counter. "That should be enough to sear it, R'yn. Bring it over here. Actually, just bring all the food over here." She gestures to the counter. "Those outside can be on their own." Though apparently the activity in the kitchen has attracted others, as she notices R'ico enter. "Hey R'ico, grab some stools or chair or something, if you don't mind." The gold rider surveys the spoils of the raid. "Seems we made out pretty well." Getting out of the way, she gestures for other to unload their goodies and grab a plate. "Hurry before we have an army of hungry riders bearing down on us. I'll have have such food wasted on the masses after all." She slides up next to Mel'Tar, looking from him to Inara. "Well, Faranth take me, someone thinks Mel'Tar is interesting!" She lightly slaps the man on the back and grins. "Perhap you've been overworking yourself in more than just..well.. work! And here I thought you were a prude. Keep practicing and maybe Oloranth will catch Ilveraeth. But definitely practice first." She winks at Inara before stepping away to find a cup.
R'ico pulls up to a stop. "What? You giving a cooking class or something? I just came in for some klah and some fruit, it there is any."
R'yn carries the plate obediently over to Rayne and sets it down, trying some of the roast porcine for himself. "OH YUM!!!!" He exclaims. "Its delicious!" He tries some of the stuffing. "This too. Very zesty." He yums. "What did you put on it?"
Inara waves over at R'ico, "I'm not exactly sure." is called out before she goes back to trying to ignore all the talk. "Oh Mel when you get a chance I do need a moment of your time to talk to you about a few things." Then it's back to shoving baskets around, taking the collected foof from hands so they can go get more. "What I would give for some berries over sweet bread."
"I am -hardly- a prude. I just... ah.. don't.. get out often enough to well.. socialize with.. the womenfolk as often as most likes." Mel'tar says, practically embarrassed at both of the women's words. At the slap, his shoulders hunk a bit forward. "So you don't think I'm interesting, Rayne?" He raises a brow upwards, before giving his head a shake, while trying to hold the stew and klah carefully so not to get burned. "What's up, Inara?" He asks as his cheeks continue to hold a bright flush of red as his private life is aired to anyone who is listening.
Rayne grins at R'yn. "Honestly, I haven't a clue. I just throw together whatever makes my eyes water." She forks a piece of the meat and takes a bite, holding the fork in front of her while she chews. "Not bad, not bad at all. You really should try this, R'ico, but I think I spied some fruit towards the back." After taking another bite and swallowing, she smiles a bit more kindly at Mel'tar. "You'll have to forgive me, Mel. You've caught me in a rare mood."
R'ico tilts his head a little and smiles at the talk. Seems the most favorite conversation topic in this Weyr is, well, mutual attraction. Of one sort or another. He goes to get a plate for Rayne to dish him up some of whatever is being served. "What is this, y'say? Porcine? It sure smells good. Who did the cooking?"
R'yn knaws on his share of the meat and stuffing. "Can i have some fruit too?" He asks with his mouth full. "I love the meat. But it needs something sweet too." He tells Rayne. "its almost like those harvest thanks gather meals. Very very good." He agrees.
"Well, R'ico, it was pretty much a group effort. Good food, good company. Just don't go telling folks I've gone domestic. I have a reputation to keep after all." Rayne takes an aristocratic pose before reaching up to scratch her shoulder. "So tell me, R'yn, where are you in weyrling training? I haven't had much time to come out and watch in a while."
After settling the stew and the klah down on the small table filled with food, Mel'tar offers a quiet smile to those about, then starts to gather up a plate of food for himself, as usual packing on the meatrolls. For now, he grows quiet, staying in the background as he listens to the conversation turn to Weyrlings. Turning his eyes upon R'yn expectedly, he waits to hear the answer. Yawing into the back of his head, he is starting to feel the hours of the day finally get to him.
R'yn shakes his head. "Uh, not very far. Donath is only almost 3 months old." R'yn tells them both. "I think we're almost going to start though. Donath is getting pretty big. She's slender for a green, but tall." R'yn adds. "She'll probably be the first one ready."
Rayne smiles and nods, listening to R'yn. "Without our green dragons, and their riders, Pern would be lost. I'll have to come out and watch when your class starts flying." She tilts her head left, then right, popping the aches of the day. "Well folks, I thank you all for joining my kitchen raid. Come see me when you're fussed at. Well, when you're fussed at, R'yn." The rest, she realizes, are relatively immune for disrupting the weyr's kitchens. "With that, I take my leave. And remember, I can be nice!" Tossing her fork in one of the piles of dishes off to the side, she moves to make her way out of the kitchens.
R'yn finishes his meal and then looks for a place to set his empty plate and dishes down. "There we go." He hurries out. "I will!" He promises.
R'ico says, "Good lunch, Rayne!"
Rayne leads an uber sekrit rider raid of the kitchens. R'yn tags along with R'ico, Mel'tar, Inara, Y'sian and Nadina.