It's not that she's anti-social, nor ever unpleasant, but Qia seems to have chosen the cot in the /way/ back of the barracks, right in a nice corner. It's a good spot, and it has it's advantages, at least to her. Leaning over her press, she's organizing and reorganizing her things, what little there is.
Arilynne's cot is way up front, closer to the door out of the barracks, the one with the fluffiest mattress which Aril is in the process of bouncing on in boredom. Qia is noticed with delight and Aril zooms towards the other girl with all the grace of a steamroller. "Hiya," she greets brightly before leaning over to peer in the recesses of the press. Without shame is this girl.
Qia is just patting down a slightly worn looking shirt, and tucking a small hide book in under it. Shh, you didn't see that. Bright greetings? Well, she can do that, as she tips her head up and grins, "Hi there, I take it you're a candidate huh?" she questions, making sure that little book is tucked far far away and out of view.
Arilynne tugs lightly at the knot adorning her shoulder, "Uh-huh, it was the only recourse I could take or I would have ended up Branwenth's newest toy." The small book is noticed, but for once Aril shows a bit of tact and doesn't corner the trader on it. "I'm Arilynne," she adds, holding out her hand in greeting. "Formerly of Healer Hall."
Qia stands up, closing her press and sitting upon the top, even scooting over to offer some space to Aril. "Qia, she with no nickname," she replies in good humor, taking the offered hand and shaking lightly. "I sorta was tricked into..." she trails off, cheeks flushing red inexplicably and gaze even wandering off. Thinking, thinking. She starts to drift mentally as the early morning encounter that ended in her being searched, comes back to mind.
Jeretta starts paying attention again.
"Tricked? How so?" Oh now you've done it, you've piqued Aril's curiousity. "I bet that tricky Branwenth was involved. She even tricked Syrth into trading away his rider."
Red. Cheeks. Red. Qia could be a neon sign with a little more heat on that flesh. Her gaze darts around the room, then she lowers her voice and her head, muttering. "Janah asked me for a kiss, but it was all Kadarth's fault, and well..." she leaves the rest up to an imaginative mind. Possibly a -bad- idea.
Arilynne's eyes go wide, she has yet to really meet this infamous Janah-rider type person, but she's heard stories. Mostly from Rh'esh. "A kiss? Really? And did you," she asks, leaning closer eager to hear it straight from the runner's mouth instead of assuming. You never want Aril to assume.
Qia presses her lips tightly together, then starts biting into the bottom one, suddenly finding interest in her dress, which isn't that interesting, beyond that it's smudged with dried mud in one spot. "Did I what?" Is she playing stupid?
Arilynne is a rather determined little thing, "Kiss Janah," she prompts.
Qia presses her lips together again and fumbles for a moment, twisting her dress up into a tight little ball in her fist. Silence is a good answer, right? "Well, mmmphf... yeah," she finally admits, ducking her head down some more.
Arilynne squeals with the sinfullness of it all. "Really? You kissed her," she fairly shouts, causing other candidates in the room to peer at the pair curiously. Did you want that to be a secret? Ooops. "And how was it? Was it good? Was it tingly?" she adds with a bit of wickedness.
Qia moves suddenly, pushing up from the press and flopping back onto her cot, before pulling a pillow over her head. "Oh no," she mutters to herself, sighing softly. Too late, the other candidates in the room are well alerted now. "It was different.." she admits, voice muffled under the pillow's cover.
Arilynne rises from the press to instead sit indian style on the floor, her head positioned next to Qia's pillow covered one. "Different good or different bad?" she probes relentlessly.
Qia's toes wiggle in an outward sign of nervousness, and reluctance, though she's relaxing, even if she's trying to suffocate herself under the pillow. Oops. "Welllll, it wasn't bad, it was just.. different.."
Arilynne places her elbow on one knee and cups her chin in her hand, "Different hmmm," she mulls over that answer. "I've never kissed a girl before." Always one for a new experience, she lifts the edge of Qia's pillow slightly to ask, "Would you kiss me?"
Qia squeals underneath the pillow's cover and pulls it up, her face red from the warmth of it upon her. "What?" she questions, not sure she heard that right. After all, the pillow /was/ covering her ears too .. wasn't it?
"Kiss me," Aril repeats, rather liking the idea. "I've never kissed a girl. I want to see how it's different." Closing her eyes, she purses her lips, waiting.
Qia starts to protest, shaking her head a little and blinking as Aril closes her eyes. "But, it's not.." Oops, impasse. She can't say it's not different, since she's never kissed a boy. "I...oh bother," she finally just leans forwards and presses her lips against the other girl's.
Arilynne's eyes open in shock and she blinks, once, twice, then thrice. Finally breaking contact, she touches her fingers to her lips, "You kissed me," she murmurs, stunned. Forget that Aril begged for it in the first place. "It was rather nice," she adds softly to herself. "Different."
Qia squeals again and pulls back, dragging her pillow over her face again. "I can't believe I did that," she squeaks to herself, just barely heard under the fluffy covering. She doesn't really say anything else, though she does lift a corner to get a peek at Arilynne's expression.
Arilynne looks worried, after all kissing two girls in one day is prone to be... confusing? "No, no, it was my fault," she decides taking all the blame. "I wanted to see what kissing a girl was like and you were nice enough to show me, Qia." And for that, Aril's added you to her list of lifelong friends, which may or may not be a good thing.
Flumphf! The pillow drops back down and Qia's words are muffled into the fluff stuffed inside. "I don't mind, I mean, showing you, but.." she trails off a little, taking her time in finishing that sentence. "I just don't want /everyone/ asking me for kisses.. I mean..." Blush. Neon sign time again.
Arilynne pulls up a corner of the pillow again, to peek at Qia's... chin, it seems. "I won't tell, really I won't," she promises the other candidate. "Although, if I were you I'd rather like people asking me for kisses." Sighing, she reveals, "No one really tries to kiss me anymore." And Aril misses it.
Qia's chin is quite the fine specimen of chindom, nice and pointy, perhaps a bit stubborn looking. "You promise?" Even though she -knows- there are others that /had/ to have seen that, the thought of a promise does help. "But Arilynne, I've only been kissed three times," she murmurs, still a bit muffled, though one eye peeks out blue-gray from the non-descript brown of her pillow.
Arilynne's eyes widen at that thought as she studies Qia, "Only three," she gasps. "How's that possible? You must mean only three people," she finally decides with a nod. "After all, you kiss rather well. You must have learned that somewhere."
Qia blushes furiously under the pillow, but she knows when to accept a compliment. "Thank you, but really, only three..." Janah was her first kiss, and well, Arilynne is now her third. "I've never even been kissed by a boy yet." That sets her to thinking, wondering if it says something about her.
Arilynne places her chin back in the palm of her hand, elbow still braced on knee. "Never kissed a boy," she mulls over that problem. "Well Rh'esh is a boy," she decides, sitting up straighter and tugging lightly on the pillow. "Hey Qia, I bet Rh'esh would kiss you if we asked nicely enough! He's really very nice for all that he's become somewhat more stuffy. I think that's Syrth's doing," she adds with a whisper, leaning closer to where she assumes Qia's ear is under the pillow.
Flumphf, take two, the pillow finally gets tucked where it belows, under Qia's head as she stares up at the stone above her. "Rh'esh /isn't/ just a boy, he's the Weyrleader!" is her reply to that statement, her eyes widening a bit, head turning to face Arilynne. "I c-can't ask /him/..." Stuffy or no, that's out of the question, but if Aril asked, well, that's different now, isn't it?
Arilynne is of a like mind and beams her response, "But /I/ could. He was my friend before he was Weyrleader, so I should get priority." Should and will, of course, are two very different words, worlds apart in meaning. "Next time we see him, I'll ask for you," she adds in a magnanimous gesture, not quite understanding what she's promising.
Qia whumphfs over onto her stomach and peers at Arilynne, tipping her head to the side as she folds her arms under her chin. Girl Talk time. "Do you think he'd really do it? I mean, why should he? I'm just a candidate." Practically no one. "Besides, I..I could kiss one of the boy candidates.." Couldn't she?
Arilynne wiggles on the hard floor, her rear searching to find a more comfortable spot on the stone. "Of course he will," she decides distractedly, frowning as she wiggles a bit more. "He's really very nice, and I'm sure he'll do it because you're a candidate. He's really a caring sort of fellow." Finally giving up, Aril rises with a woosh and plops down on the foot of Qia's cot. Oooh, /much/ better. "And of course you can ask one of the boy candidates, but I don't know any of them. They could be a bad sort," she adds with with a scowl. "And assume something was meant by a kiss."
Jeretta has been sitting quietly in the corner all this time, working on sewing together two truly /gigantic/ pieces of fabric in a particularly brilliant shade of metallic emerald green. The fabric pieces are each big enough to hold about five of her slight frame. Her attention is fully on the task at hand, and /not/ on the shenanigans of the other occupants of the room.
Jeretta reads the brightly colored sign.
Qia blinks at Aril settles on the end of her cot, finally just sitting up and leaning against the wall with her pillow propped behind her, the second one, much flatter, getting tossed at the girl. "Here," she says, not really giving her much warning as the square flies. "Assume? Assume /what/?" Oh my, has someone led a sheltered life? Perhaps, that or she's playing dumb. Not like that's hard to do in her case, it just comes naturally, or so it may seem. "I think that'd be nice, I mean.. have a boy kiss me." Yep, she likes boys alright.
Arilynne just happened to be glancing the other way when that pillow flew, and therefore was beaned rather fully by the soft square as she turned her head at the 'Here' called out. "Mmmrrrff!" Pillow drops and hazel eyes glare. "Assume that kissing leads to more," she explains offhand, her attention on the pillow and possible retaliation. "Kissing boys is nice, but you have to be careful which boys you choose to kiss."
How convienient, even if that wasn't Qia's intentions in the least, she bites down on her lower lip to stiffle a giggle, though a little bit escapes just the same. "Sorry," she manages to squeak out, before tugging her own pillow free and stuffing it under her chin, burying her mouth against it, which muffles her voice of course. "More? What more /is/ there?" Oh, that was a million dollar question.
Stitch. Stitch. Stitch. Teeny-tiny stit ches, taken with the utmost precision and care, bind the two gargantuan fabric swathes together. Jeretta does her very best to concentrate on stretches of metallic blue, to the exclusion of everything else.
It's the giggle that decides Arilynne, and flattened square goes flying Qia's direction. "What more?" She giggles, popping up off the bed in a rush. "Why there's lots more! All of it rather nice," she adds as an aside as she ducks behind an empty cot. "Didn't you mother ever talk to you about the birds and the vtols?"
Qia's head jerks back as the square of pillow hits her in the face, her expression startled and giggling abruptly halting. Stunned, she sits there for a moment, then blinks and grabs up the square as she hops up onto her cot, standing like some deluded champion. Hear the crowd roar! "Of course she didn't!" she shoots back across the room, throwing the pillow, which unfortunately goes wide and ends up being flung right at Jeretta, the local seamstress. "Oops!"
Lucky for Jerri, she happened to bend over to examine a particularly tricky bit of stitchery just as the pullow came fliying her way. A *whoosh* goes over her head, adn she looks up in startlement, delivering a /glare/ to the pillow-fighting candidates. She returns to her stitching, plainly annoyed.
Arilynne is poised for retaliation herself, but finds no need. Instead, she mocks. "Hahaha, that wasn't even close! You couldn't hit the broad side of a Hold if you tried," she taunts. Nyah, nyah... how old is Aril?
Ah-ha! Qia still has ammunition, so Arilynne is -not- safe, as she lifts her other pillow and flings it right at the girl. Direct hit? Hopefully, it looks like it's tumbling straight. "Wanna bet?!" she taunts back, hopping off her cot and snagging a pillow off of an unused one.
Arilynne oofs as the pillow glances off the side of her head. Grabbing up the soft missile next to her and one from the cot further down, Aril slowing builds up a small arsenal. Whooom. Whooom. One pillow follows another as the Healer launches them in Qia's direction. "Ha, lucky shot!" she calls back and quickly jumps on another empty cot, this one obviously having an owner if the clothes littering it is any clue.
Caoimhe has arrived.
Caoimhe glances around with nose wrinkled. "Disgusting," she comments. "Come with me, please."
Jeretta looks up from her pillowmaking, somewhat confused. Is this someone important? Should she kow this person?
Arilynne is standing Peter Pan style on an empty cot littered with cast-off clothing, elbows cocked back, hands on hips. One could almost expect her to crow. Pose is lost with Caoimhe's words though, "Disgusting?" She blinks. "Come with you?" From proud rooster to silly parrot, Aril seems to deflate.
Qia halts mid-swoop with a pillow dangling out of one hand and the other at the ready by her feet as she gets hit one in the head and one on her back. "Huh?" Intelligent. Marvelous. A true intellect here.
Caoimhe sighs and spells out each word very slowly. Very slowly. "Come. With. Me." What part of that did you not understand? With a sigh, she whirls about and stalks through the door, her bearing so confident that it seems to imply - person-in-authority.
Caoimhe strolls out of the barracks feeling good.
Arilynne casts a worried glance Qia's way and then offers another Jerri's. "Do you think we should? Follow her, I mean. She's not a rider, but she could be Important." And Aril's learned one thing from her stint at Fort, don't upset the Important People. They give you icky chores when they're irritated.
Qia purses her lips a bit and shakes her head, "I don't think she's important, but I could be wrong. She was saying all sorts of mean stuff about candidates the day before. I don't think she likes us much..."
Qia wanders off into her thoughts -- she's a lost cause now.
Arilynne bounces off the bed, landing of the floor with a soft *thud* and just a small cloud of dust. Whoever claimed this cot is obviously not a Clean Person. "Perhaps we should follow anyhow," she waffles, then decides, weaving her way through the pillowed destruction and out of the barracks.