You head up the curved corridor into the main living cavern.

Main Living Cavern
The domed cavern of Benden Weyr's living cavern is ever filled with a warm and friendly ambiance.  Several ventilation shafts open up at the ceiling to allow
the passage of fresh air inside, formed from the natural crevices of the ancient volcano, while the walls are brightly decorated with accented designs from
colored cements used to fill in cracks in the stone.  The living cavern is filled with stout, highly carved 'tables' where 'riders' and 'weyrfolk' work,
talk, and relax.  The hearths are always lit and pots of stew and klah are always available, though the klah supply drops dramatically in the mornings.
Trays of food are brought in by the drudges every so often, topped with meatrolls (covered so that the firelizards don't get them), bubblies, and other
treats.  The bar lies near the hearth, where riders take great advantage of the wines, keeping Bob the bartender quite busy.

Jester blinks in from **between**

Arial
The first thing that you notice is a tumultuous riot of blue-black curls streaming down to the middle of her back.  This mass array of hair frames a pale
pixie-like face, offset by wide midnight blue eyes.  Laughter and joy dance in the depths as Arial again finds her balance in life, and her good humour
returns.  Her small pert mouth is once again set in a line of good-humour and joy.  Her lithe body is positioned in a more open and approachable stance.
Arial's not the same, but she's definitely more friendly than she's been in a while.
A simple knot of red, black and white adorns Arial's shoulder, marking her as Benden Candidate.
A dowdy brown tunic is worn loose, not even tucked into the tan breeches below it.  A belt encircles Arial's slim waist, holding the too large breeches up.
Arial's trusty and well-worn boots cushion her feet, and her hair is drawn back into a tight ponytail.
She's in a brighter, friendlier mood. Could this be due to being Searched?

M'rika
A thin young woman with long, red-gold hair which is pulled back from her face in a coppery braid that hangs to her waist.  Her skin has been tanned by hours
in the sun... Two soft, brown eyes peer out at the world from above a faintly freckled nose and a shy, but certain, smile. A faint blush is dusted along her
cheeks. She moves gracefully, and without hesitation, although her eyes rarely stay fixed on one thing for long - she is still a little shy.
A deep green tunic of thick weave drapes across her slender figure and is belted closely at her waist by a deep brown strap of wherry-hide. Her riding leathers
have been dyed to match the belt, and both are the color of her beloved Audath. Her jacket, however, is older and darker than the rest of her gear, and quite a
bit large on the girl.  You suspect it was given to her by another rider who is not as small as she.  The only thing left from her days before Impression are
her worn and scuffed boots, which she refuses to part with for any reason. Persephone perches on M'rika's shoulder.

Arial mumbles something about an exercise in futility.  "You know, the hearth in the barracks isn't big enough, and if all the candidates are going to be
watching eggs, there may be fights about hearth space."  Wouldn't want the candies fighting before hand -- well fighting more than necessary.

M'rika smiles at the new arrival, wondering if she should be saddled to one of these monstrosities, as well.

M'rika shakes her head at Arial, "Candidates don't fight...  You all help each other..."  she has been there after all, "And you'll just have to come up with a
solution to the warmth problem yourself...  without upsetting Zivath preferably."  she smiles.

Diony wags her ponytail -- drip drying is taking too long.  "Hellooo...?"  Her voice does a little dance up and down the scale, quizzical.  "Fight?  Us?"  She
bobs a nod to Arial and then grins at the red-haired rider.

A quick glance at her flit, and then Miri says, "I'll have Jester check on how you are doing with the egg, periodically, too."  Great, now the super-spy is
gonna be following you around.

Diony arrives presently beside Arial -- her voice preceded her, of course.  "You have eggs?"

Arial would scream if she had the chance, but instead keeps her cool.  "Oh, is that necessary?"  So much for stuffing the egg in a storeroom.

Diony
Blonde hair, intractably straight and held back in a ponytail, accents Diony's features, her face a high-cheeked triangle.  Nascent maturity lends reflection
to deeply set eyes: winter's gray, a foil to summer's sway.  That incipient control is likewise voiced in the spare lines of jaw and crooked nose, and the
angle of pale brows, mantling youth in edged cynicism.  Long of limb, she owns little of adulthood's fullness.
A checked-cotton shirt, collar up and sleeves hitched to elbow, is tucked into Diony's waistline, a flash of shirt tails giving way to plain bone jodhpurs.
Navy and white, her hold colors dominate. Brutus perches on Diony's shoulder.

Whimsy stalks on all fours.

M'rika nods, "Yeah, then if you have any questions, or it hatches early, I'll know."  boy, when she sets something down on you - POW!

Arial points to the purple hulk near the doorway, "Guess who got guard duty of that -- lovely egg."  She was going to say eyesore, but it is Audath's baby.  "I
don't think it'll be hatching anytime soon," she remarks wryly to M'rika.  Boy is that an understatement.

M'rika shrugs, "Well, if it hasn't hatched by the time Zivath's eggs do, we'll call it a dud and dispose of it somewhere..."  After all, there must have been a
dragon egg that failed to hatch /sometime!/

Diony looks sidelong at Arial, smirking.  Arial's in trouble, Arial's in trouble.  So, she wasn't exactly sure what the trouble is, but the fact of it is
clear enough.  Serenely innocent and face smooth, Diony introduces herself to the rider.  Perhaps not prudent but it's too late for that.  "I'm Diony, rider."
And then realization dawns.  /Those/ eggs.  Rallying sweetly:  "I'll make sure she takes good care of it."

Arial pokes Diony and hisses once the rider is out of earshot.  "I got caught placing /your/ egg and you side with the rider?"

Diony snickers as the rider vanishes--cut short by that poke.  "Hey," she replies, palms to the ceiling, "What can I say?  She's a rider."  But more
considerate, "Did you really get caught?"

Arial nods and mentally kicks herself again.  "Found your egg in the barracks for some reason and so decided once again to lumber out and place it with the
rest."  ooc :I forgot to drop it.  *smacks forehead*  "Wish I looked up into the sky before, because while I placed it, down floated Audath."

Through the tale, Diony nods and hmms.  Then, rather like a broody dragon queen herself, she asks softly, suddenly, "What happened to it, to my egg?"

Arial shrugs, "The way I figure it, some other smart aleck candie decided to get even and put an egg in the barracks to show who the blame went to.  I had to
move it back onto the grounds before a rider saw it.  Be it was Denall, he's a mean-spirited boy if I ever saw one.  I don't know why he got Searched."

A'razi materializes out of thin air.

Arial pokes Diony again as A'razi appears, just in case the other candie didn't see him.  She goes over to the hulk that is now her charge, dragging it near the
hearth, just in case Jester is watching.  "Hi A'razi, how's Tylenth."  Said a bit too brightly, maybe?

A'razi walks in whistling tunelessly. He gives the Candidates a glare and pauses for a mug of klah, shifting the axe he's carrying as he pours. He glares at
Arial some more, then snorts. "Tylenth is insane."

"A mean-spirited dragon?"  Diony wrinkles her brow in worry.  "But where is it now?"  Head turns, hand lifts and fingers waggle.  I see you, A'razi.  "Hi..."
But she looks intently at Arial -- how to look casual when you have a hulking paper mache egg by your side -- take lessons.

"Insane?" Diony asks, brows arching at that axe.  'Like dragon, like rider' don't they say?

A'razi nods at Diony, "Aye, and since you're a Candidate, you were probably in on that prank, and therefore, you may try to get Tylenth to relinquish that
garish excuse for an egg you gave her."

Arial blinks innocently, "Prank?"

Diony blinks innocently twice, "In on it?"

A'razi gives Arial a look, then pointedly gazes at the egg the girl is guarding. "Yes, prank." Back to Diony, "Don't play innocent, you've got her convinced that
she's a fertile egg-laying green!"

Arial coughs to cover her laughter, but an inelegant snort escapes.  Blushing, Arial sits next to her egg.  "Oh, this?  Seems that Audath went and laid one
too.  M'rika decided I was the perfect nanny."

Diony claps her hand to her mouth.  "Really?  Did she take it to her weyr?  Or is it out in the b-- wherever she found it?"

A'razi raises an eyebrow. "Indeed? Diony, she's out in the bowl, wrapped about it."  He pushes his bangs back and reseats that axe. "In the meantime, I've some
work to do." In other words, Tylenth had better not have an egg when he comes back.

Arial doesn't want to face a maternal dragon, much less take an egg away from her.  "Umm, A'razi. . ."

Diony patpats the purple monstrosity -- and moves behind one end surreptitiously; paper mache won't provide much protection from an axe but it's
better than a side of wherry.  "Talented dragons at Benden," she remarks conversationally.  "Perhaps if it rains...?"

A'razi snorts at Diony, "She'd shield it with a wing. She's crazy, not stupid." He stalks towards the lower caverns rather purposefully.

Diony calls after, "Where are you going?"

A'razi pauses and looks back at Diony, "The Candidate Barracks need some redecorating."

Arial gasps and runs after the rider.  "You know, the barracks are a bit of a mess.  Why not wait until /after/ we move out of them?"

A'razi snorts at Arial. "They need redecorating /now/." He remembers them, oh yes. "

A'razi says, "They're hideous."

A'razi leaves for the relative quiet of the lower caverns.

"And just what did you have in mind...?" Diony asks -- but A'razi is gone.  "We should follow him, Ari -- he had an axe."

Arial nods and fears what A'razi might do.  Her bed is lumpy and miserable, but it's better than nothing.  "A'rraaazzziii," she calls, running after the insane
rider.

<Opal>  A'razi starts to whistle tunelessly again as he pulls mattresses off cot-frames. All the mattresses, regardless of occupancy and messiness.

Arial leaves for the relative quiet of the lower caverns.

<Opal>  Arial pushes past the heavy curtains and walks gloomily in from the balcony.

Diony jogs after.  "Your egg, Arial!"  But they're into the warrens and she can only follow.

You leave the main cavern for the relative quiet of the lower caverns.

You head up one of the side ramps onto the balcony, then you push past the heavy curtains covering the entrance to the candidate barracks.

Candidate's Barracks

The ceiling to this cavern isn't particularly high, but the room is rather long. It stretches out far enough and wide enough to house the double rows of cots for
almost all the Candidates that might stay at Benden Weyr while awaiting Hatching day.  The room is generally neat, though occasionally some groups of Candidates
are neater than others and less prone to prank upon one another.  The tapestries on the walls are simple, and bear marks suggesting that sometime in the past
there had been a food fight or two in this room.  The hearths at either end of the room keeps it warm even during Benden's cold winters.

A'razi dumps all the mattresses into a large pile in the middle of the floor and then contemplates bare, wooden frames.

Arial rushes in and glances about the room, fearing to see evidence that she was too late and the rider already started his mad crusade to redo the barracks.

A'razi finishes with the matresses and start on the nearest frame. The axe comes out, and thocks into the wooden side, splitting it neatly. "I like this new axe,
it's much better than my old one."

Opal squawks then chitters angrily as she's evicted from her cot.  Sheesh -- no man has ever thrown her out of bed before.

Arial gasps as she sees that she's too late.  "Wait, A'razi, what would the weyrwoman say?"

Taj, who had quietly remained hidden until now, steps inside with an armload of rather odd metal pins and hinges. As A'razi finishes breaking up the first
frame, he starts to reassemble it in a new way.

A'razi glances at Arial, "Sabria? She's probably approve."

"Are you mad!?" Diony shouts over the twock of axe on wood.  How much wood could A'razi chop, if A'razi could chop wood?  "Watch out for the splint...ers? What?"
And she looks at new arrival and his armful of...things.

Arial eyes Taj's work of art appraisingly.  Wow, looks more comfortable than before.  She quickly steps back, watching the destruction of those horrible cots
with glee.

Arial looks about for another axe.  "Erm, need help A'razi?"

A'razi grins at the Smith and continues breaking up frames, now about three ahead of Taj. "I think the walls could use a paint job, too."

Oh, sure--a futon is more comfortable, yeah right.  Diony wants feathers and lots of them.  "Are you trying to give us all lumbago?"

You asked, Arial. "Grab some paint, and start to work.", the greenrider orders.  A'razi ignores Diony's comment.

Paint job?  "What about the fumes from the paint?  Besides, we used all the p--uh" Diony breaks into a guilty smile.

A'razi laughs softly, shoulders shaking. "You used all the paint that /you/ knew about. But certainly not all the paint." That would be impossible, for one
thing. "When I was not yet a Candidate, I found a cavern with enough paints in it to repaint the entire Weyr... twice over."

Opal wraps her tail around Diony's neck, hisses at A'razi, hisses at Taj and hisses at Brutus on Diony's other shoulder for good measure.  In shrill chitters
she complains furiously.  But Diony pays them little heed.  "I didn't take any of it," she insists.  "Anyway, what exactly is that supposed to be?  A torture
device?"

A'razi finishes the first side of the Barracks and crosses over to the second. With a slight smirk, he notes, "I moved some of those paints to an easier
storage area before I went to pick up Taj." Apparently, Tylenth's egg was the absolute last straw... but how he got the green away from her baby for even a
little while is a mystery he probably won't answer.

A'razi shrugs. "They're beds." Obviously.

Taj doesn't look up, he doesn't pause except to move to the next frame. It's easy to see why he's a Sr Jman Smith.

A'razi sets back to work, hack, hack, chop, chop.

Obviously.  "What about the mattresses?"  Diony backpedals as A'razi advances up the row.

A'razi glances at the pile. "They'll go back on when we're finished." Replacing the mattresses will take more time than is available today.

Surveying the wanton destruction, Diony just shakes her head.  "This is probably a really dumb question, but what was wrong with the old cots?"  And she
continues to walk backwards as A'razi works his way from cot to cot.

A'razi glances at Diony, "They're boring. Besides, Taj wanted to try out this new design." And the greenrider /does/ have a habit of accomodating his brother.

A'razi moves up the row as Taj switches to the other side as well. They're fast, these two, fast enough to make you wonder if they've done this sort of thing
before.

Diony bites back a retort about Candidates not being allowed to use their cots for anything other than sleeping and chooses to smile instead.  "Couldn't you
have dyed the sheets or something."  Ugh, dyeing is another bad topic.

A'razi hmmms, there's an idea, and Rael is probably around somwhere... and willing. "Good idea, Diony. Redyed sheets and painted walls... a whole new
Barracks."

A'razi finishes the row and slings the axe across his back. He advances to the pile of mattresses and starts stripping linen bedding... and a lot of clothes...
into a large pile. He whistles, and two drudges come in accept a note, and start carting the sheets... and clothing... out for redying.

A'razi then goes after the paints himself.

Arial tries out one of Taj's designs sans the mattress.  "Well, it sure is, interesting."  She glances at Diony, "But definitely not comfortable enough to
sleep on without the mattresses."  Painted walls, re-dyed sheets?  Sounds great, as long as she's not the one who has to actually /do/ all that work.

And it might be great if A'razi didn't have that same lack of color coordination that Kysha does. He brings in the first bucket of mixed garishness and spreads a
putrid pink across one wall.

Diony inspects, "If you really want to do the place up, we could do with a window about...there."   Everyone's a critic.  Deftly, she rescues something
frilly that might have belonged to her.  She put it in her pocket, so unless she has a fetish for other people's underthings...

"If you want a window, Diony, there's a chisel, start to work." The rider adds day-glo yellow to the pink.

Arial blinks a couple of times, not sure that she believes what she's seeing. Pink.  Oh the guys are gonna love that.  Arial can see the nightmares coming on
due to that horrid color.  "Ah, 'Razi, is pink the right color for the barracks?"

Diony sucks a breath.  "There's half a mountain in that direction!  I'll just..."  She sees the colour scheme and just about has apoplexy.  Let Arial
talk to him -- Diony arms herself with a brush and a tub of sky blue.

A'razi nods emphatically. "Yes, but not pink alone." A color that looks part green and part brown, rather a vomitous shade is splattered liberally across
another long section of wall.

A'razi tosses in some pulsating red that will probably dry to the shade of old blood. And then some garish purple, in Sabria's honor. And orange.

A'razi fairly covers the walls with mixing, running, dripping, colors, all the hues he could find, all of them rather too much even on their own... the
over-all effect is nightmarish even for the colorblind.

"Shells!" Diony vituperates.  "It's mixing, not covering! Arial??  Is there more blue?"

Taj finishes with the cots, looks up, and /blanches/. Breathlessly, "I'm done... and out of here!" The Smith runs for cover.

A'razi pulls out an evil shade of blue, and passes it to Diony.

Arial picks up a dry brush and tries to clean up A'razi's colors, seeing as this is where she's going to live for who knows how long.  She patiently blends as
the pink, yellow, and Diony's sky blue form and interesting purple.  She follows the pair of mad painters, grumbling all the way.  Everyone else had better
appreciate the measures she goes to to make the place livable.

A'razi finishes and starts in behind Arial, spreading more paints, then spraying them with some clear substance that seems to set them drying within moments.

The drudges bustle back in and start putting mattresses back on the new cot-frames, babbling about the new design as they do so.

Arial checks over her shoulder and groans, seeing A'razi repainting her carefully blending colors.  "Aurgh!"  She tosses down her brush, giving up.

Diony inspects A'razi's blue, looking into the vicious stuff for a long moment before admitting defeat.  "Faranth titties! -- And we're supposed to sleep in
here?" she asks plaintively.

A'razi smirks, "I can't even /get/ to my Weyr."

A'razi finishes redoing Arial's blended area, puts down the paints and continues to spray with the clear stuff. He ignores the large splatters, drippings and
puddles on the floor.

"Serves you right," Diony murmurs meanly, her aesthetic sensibilities thoroughly offended.

Arial groans as it all becomes evident.  "I don't know why riders seem to blame candidates when things go wrong."  Definitely paranoid.  Arial's said it all
along.

The drudges whip out to check on their laundry in progress. Well, okay, re-dying.

A'razi stops and looks about, appraising his work. "Ah, lovely." Could use some carving, though, but there's no real wood to carve.

Arial shudders to think what her bedding looks like and mentally plans a raid to the storeroom.

Diony makes plans to _sleep_ in the storeroom.  "Well..."  What else can be said.  It's...it's...an eyesore.

A'razi mentally plans to post guards on the storerooms, to prevent the Candies from getting any great ideas. And he hopes they don't find out where his paint
cache is.

The drudges bustle back in with large baskets of quick-dried linens, spreading the garishly dyed blue-purple-red sheets over the bare mattresses. Equally
hideous blue-green-yellow alternate, and multi-toned clothing is dropped at random.

Arial grimaces and then looks on the bright side.  "Well, at least they match the paint."  Arial's going to see if she can bunk with Tamar tonight and every
night until the hatching.

A'razi supervises this, and when they're done, he nods, thanks them, and passes them a couple of marks. He's not stupid either.

A'razi smiles a bit at the stupefied Candidates and stalks out, to try to convince Tylenth to relinquish that darned egg.

A'razi pushes past the heavy curtains to head back into the cavern.

Diony spies a singe mark on her sheet and just shoots a look at the drudge -- the drudge, for his part, shrugs a shoulder and makes a face, deliberately
leaving wrinkles in her sheets.

Diony sighs breathlessly.  "This is monstrous.  I hope Tylenth never gets sick of her egg," she says spitefully.

Arial closes her eyes, but still sees the garish colors.  "Boy when A'razi gets mad, he sure gets even."  She nods emphatically at Diony's spiteful words.  "I
say we add a rain slicker to it, so it doesn't even get the /chance/ to melt. Mean rider."

Diony nods, "You said it -- he isn't Bitran, is he?"

Arial snorts, "I wouldn't be surprised if he was."

Arial sighs and hurries back to the main cavern.  "I think I should check on my egg."  Anything to get away from the garish mess that is the barracks now.

Arial pushes past the heavy curtains to head back into the cavern.