StarCraft Main Hall
The vaulted Great Hall of StarCraft possesses a grandeur that belies its recent construction. Built to inspire the mind to look upward, smooth columns support the Gothic arches of the ceiling. The Hall runs on an East-West axis, with the heavy doors of the main office to the west. To the north and south other doors lead to various work areas. Staircases at the corners of the hall lead up to a balcony that wraps around the three sides of north, south, and west.
On the perch are Chakotay and Idoru.
You see Lodestar and Simpli here.
Etain, Jacen, and Kazandar are here.

Mayala walks ever so softly in from the Main Hall Balcony.

Linora blinks up at Jacen, trying to remember why he looks familiar. Thank Faranth Etain and Kazandar said his name, or she'd be lost! "Hey, Jacen." Still on her knees on the wet floor, she swings her head around to look at Kazandar. "Slidin'," she informs him. And look, Etain just wiped out. She /knew/ it sounded dangerous. She wrings the soaking wet rag into the pail beside her and starts sopping up more water.

Beaming Etain throws her arms around Jacen's neck once she regains her height. "Jaaaaaace!" She grins, turning her head around, eyes catchign Kazzie's nose. "I'd hug you too, but I think you'd try to kill me."

Jacen shakes his head again and hugs the girl quickly "What a reaction, all I have to do is wander in to say hi and I get just about bowled over by your enthusiasm." he says, grinning and winking at Kaz.

Kazandar rolls his eyes, nodidng at Linora, "It's only dangerous if someone cracks their head open. The rest of the time it's just got intent," after a pause he adds, "And if anyone breaks open their head, I wasn't here." Never here at all. In room /all/ day. He blinks, giving Etain his most innocent look, which isn't very good, "Me? Kill? Never...," Well, probably not...He snickers, grinning at Jacen, "Go you! You shoudl walk in more often!"

Etain slips out from Jacen's arms, giving Kaz a mischevious grins as she plods over, carefully taking the steps across the water dotted floor to give Kaz his own hug. "There!" Going back to the bucket of water she picks up the scrub brush. "Scrubbing is funfun."

Linora just... blinks at all the hugging. Then something seems to occur to her and her smile returns. Pushing damp hair away from her face, she pushes up to sit on her heels. "Fun?" Etain sure has a strange notion of fun... at least it'll go quicker with two. She wrings out her rag and drags the bucket to the next wet area, practically at Kaz's feet. Grinning up at him and noticing his somewhat battered appearance, she can't help asking, "So what happened t'the other guy?"

Etain blinks at Nora, raising her scrub brush to wave at Mayala. "What'd you mean?" she quesitons curiously before lowering her brush again, begining to scrub the floor again.

Mayala smiles and waves back at Etain as well as everyone else. "Hello," she says quietly, not wanting to interrupt anything, and having no clue as to what's going on.

Jacen has disconnected.
Jacen falls asleep.

Kazandar merfs, and takes a couple steps back. He's wet enough, thank you. "Other guy?" He asks, looking puzzled and unsure. What's she talking about? He shiffles his feet, greeting Mayala with a smile, and watches the 'good little appies' scrub.

"The one who beat you up." Linora looks up at Kaz, her expression vaguely confused. "Or didja walk off a ledge?" She grins over at May, and tosses a wet rag in her direction, then reaches into the pail on the floor beside her for another. "Make yourself useful," she suggests, pale eyes twinkling. As if Mayala would refuse, with a journeyman standing right there. Even Kaz.

Etain giggles, actually giggles. I guess the situation called for it. "/She/ was proddy." Etain rocks back and forth lightly on her heels, having switched prosition to do so.

Mayala reluctantly smiles and takes the rag, getting onto her knees to help scrub the floor. She mumbles to Lin, "Thanks alot," trying to look serious, but a twinkle in her eye gives her away. She starts the task she's been givin, just glad to do something, even if she could've been at the Lake swimming.

Linora blinks at Etain, wringing out her rag before moving on to the next spot, more or less following Etain and her scrub brush around the Main Hall sopping up excess water. "Proddy?" Is that fear? Dread? "Who?" She looks around quickly, as if there might be a proddy 'rider in the Hall right now, relief evident on her face as she discovers there isn't.

A frown tugs at the corner of Kaz's mouth, making him look sullen and vagely annoyed. "I ran into a door...hard," he explains...and shoots a glare at Etain a mis of 'shut up', 'how'd you know' and 'was it a lucky guess' expersions going over his face. Then suddenly he's smiling again, pretending it never happened. "No one's proddy, don't worry." He clears his throat, and sits down on a bench to watch.

"Tatia," with another grin Etain shoots a look to Kaz, before leaning in closer to Linora. "It was a while ago, like a few sevenday," beware Kaz. "He just doesn't want ot admit his former mentee beat him up."

As she wets her rag again and moves to a different spot, Mayala idly listens to the conversation, not really knowing what's going on or what they're talking about. She decides to just keep scrubbing, maybe she can just get this job over with. She scrubs a little faster, thinking that the faster she scrubs the faster this will be over with.

Linora's eyes widen, and she stops scrubbing. "Tatia?!" She glances quickly over at Kaz, then back at Etain. "Did /that/?" Remind her please to stay far, /far/ away from ProddyTat. She's already discovered that proddy can be non-gender-specific, let's not go for violent. Suddenly realizing she's quite frozen, she hastily wrings out her rag and starts sopping again.

Etain rolls her eyes, snickering as she scrubs the floor a bit harder, her voice low in a harsh whisper. "Yeah, it was Tori...very proddy. I swear she's the proddiest rider on Pern."

Mayala has disconnected.
Mayala closes her eyes and slips into dreamland.

Kazandar huffs and crosses his arms, stickign his chin way up in the air and declaring to the wrold, "She did /not/ beat me up. That would suggest I didn't get her back, and I did." He rolls his eyes. 'Did /that/?' His nose isn't /that/ crooked. Gheesh. And no comment on the proddiest rider thing. "Just scrub, ok?"

Linora hasn't met all the proddyriders on Pern. Only the one, and that's quite enough for her. More than enough, in fact. But far be it from her to argue with Etain, who seems to be the resident expert on just about every subject. She glances over at Kaz again... doesn't he have anything better to do than sit on that bench and /watch/ them? Shells, she was working /before/ he came out of his room. She wrings out her rag, then sits back on her heels. "So what'dja do t'Tatia?" He /said/ he got her back.

Kazandar flips open his book, trying to drown them out through reading, but he can't. Lifting his head again, and looking pitiful, worried crease appearing between his brows, he asks, "/Must/ we discuss this? Don't you have other things you can gossip about? Anything? It's really not that interesting." Note to self: Beat Etain.

Etain shakes her head, biting her lip for a moment. "Lemme see, nothing that I can think of, nothing better then you." why beat Etain? she's so cute and innocent and such.

Linora wrings out her rag. "Ain't gossip, if you're right there," she observes sagely. She picks up the pail and starts over to the next wet area, but her foot slips on the wet floor and she goes down in a heap with a shriek, dirty water flying out of the bucket in all directions.

Kazandar rolls his eyes. "Eh, well, I suppose not but...eh. It could be in a, geo..uh...mali, er, maybe?" Now he's just not making sense. "Um. If I leave it's gossip! And I'm /sure/ there's something else more, uh, sutable to cleaning floors to talk about." He nods sagely, folding his arms over his book. He's Right. He's Kaz. He's Bob.

Shanel walks in from the Main Hall Balcony.

Etain shakes her head, raising her brush in the air and wavoing wildly at Shanel, sprikeling water dropplets all over the floor and in the air. "Nope, not at all."

Shanel stops frozen on the bottem step, startled at the sit before her. "I knew it was Lin's turn but why...." The child trails off staring at Tain on the floor.

Etain goes home.

Linora picks herself up off the floor, dripping wet, and tips the now-empty bucket upright with a sigh. Looking up to wave after Etain she spots Shanel and gives the younger girl a smile. "Hey Shanel." Kaz gets an eyeroll for the random comments about gossip that made no sense, and she starts sopping up the rapidly spreading spill. "Watch your step." Is there a dry spot in the entire Hall at this point? Oh yeah. Where Kaz is.

He's leaving. Peering down at the very wet floor, Kaz begins to have second thoughts. Grumbling he gets up thoguh, and heads towards the stairs, mumbling somthign about slipping ot his death..and almost doing so once or twice. "Egh...Bye. Oh, and nice job, " he parts and he goes bakc to the safety of his room where no one can pick on him...

Kazandar goes home.

Shanel steps down to the floor. Despite the warning, the poor uncordinated thing tries to move out of the Journaymans way only to fall on her poor abused tush. Grinning sheepishly, "Need some help?"

Linora tries unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle. "Sure," she says, wringing out her rag and tossing it in Shanel's general direction. She looks around the Hall with a sigh. It's going to take a lot of wringing to get all this water up off the floor. She crawls over to retrieve the rag Mayala left behind and starts sopping, glancing back at Shanel. "You okay?"

Shanel grins at her friend. That's what she's around for, to make her friends smile. Crawling from her sprawled position into something a little more workable, Shanel begins to wipe up the mess. "How did all this," Droplets go everywhere as she indicates the water with her wet rag, "happen?"

"I kinda slipped." Linora looks a little sheepish. Actually, the way the water was flying, it's pretty amazing that only the floor got wet. "I was doin' pretty good up till then." Meaning, she was almost done. She sighs and wrings out her rag.

Shanel snickers, she can just picture it. "Well," She can't help but grin, sliding over the bucket to wring out the clothe, "this way it'll go just a little faster." Shanel indicates herself scuttling about on her hands and knees. Unforunatly the indicater was with a soaked rag, spraying Shanel.

Linora very kindly doesn't laugh at Shanel again... actually, she's engrossed enough in the monotony of sopping and wringing that she doesn't notice the spraying. What's a little more water, after all? "Yeah... thanks." She looks up quickly, a grateful smile lighting her eyes. "So... whatcha been up to?"

Shanel sits back on her heels, contemplating the mess. "Nothing much." She replies distracted, glancing sidewise at Linora, "Lot's of ceiling watching." The grin faulters as Shanel turns back to contemplating the mess. "There's gotta be a faster way do this."

If there is, Linora certainly hasn't thought of it. Sop. Wring. Sop. Wring. Blink. "Not the ceiling again!" She rolls her eyes expressively. "Sorry, I /just/ don't get it." Sop. Wring. She gives Shanel a grin, to soften any offense her words might have given. "It's just a ceiling, after all."

Shaking her head, Shanel replies, "You just don't try hard enough." Flicking a little water in the direction of Linora in the process. Sop. Wring. Sop. Wri....one could almost see the perverbile light bulb turn on above Shanel's head. "Blankets." Is all that can be as she scrambles to her feet and, attemps, to run to the staircase. "Be right back." She huffs over her shoulder and she charges up the stairs.

Linora blinks. "Blankets?" Had she heard right? But Shanel's already gone. Sop. Wring. Sop. Wring. Sighing, she crawls over to the next-wettest area, dragging the bucket along with. Clatterbang THUMP.

Clipclap, clipclap. All that can be seen of the source of all the clatter on the stairs is a pile of bed sheets. Not to worry, however, Shanel managed to grab only her own in the, ahem, theft. Grinning she drops the on the floor and waits, looking quite proud of herself.

Mayala walks ever so softly in from the Main Hall Balcony.

Mayala waves at Linora and Shanel, "Hello."

Linora looks up at the noise, kneeling in a huge puddle of water and staring openmouthed with a dripping rag in her hand as a large pile of bed sheets comes down the stairs to land in front of her. Ohhhh, it's Shanel. Eyes wide, she can't help asking, "What're /those/ for?" Hoping she's wrong... At Mayala's greeting, she turns to wave at the girl, maybe just a little absently.

"Hello." If it's not quite as warm as it could have been well, Shanel didn't quite get the responce she had hoped for. "Don't worry Lin." Full of confidence, perhapes a little high pitched, "They're all from my bed." One sweeping motion indicates the entire hall. "It'll go faster now. See." Matter-of-factly, Shanel steps down and begins to unfold her beding, spreading it across the wet floor.

Linora laughs. "What're ya gonna sleep on tonight?" But she drops her rag into the pail and starts sopping up water with the bedsheets instead. Of course, it'll be hard to wring these into the bucket... "Oh, this /is/ faster." Messy, but faster. She gathers up the soaking sheet and carefully drags it to the main door, so she can wring it out in the courtyard. Of course, the only way to hold the thing is against her body, effectively soaking her clothing. "Grab one, May? Soon's this water's sopped up, we're done." Whether it's clean or not. Kaz left, after all. No journeymen to check, and Lin's hungry.

Mayala giggles alittle to herself as she sees that Lin is still working on the floor, but her giggling stops as she hears her friend asking her to help. Well, it can't be all that bad, especially since the floor only needs to be dried. Besides, even if she gets a little wet, its not like she's never gotten wet before. "I'd be glad to help," she says smiling slightly at Lin and Shanel, she grabs a sheet and starts to sopping up the water on the floor.

Eyes sparkling with mischief, Shanel follows Linora's example. Gathering one of the soaked sheets to herself, Nel heads for the courtyard. Wear /is/ she going to sleep tonight. Hadn't thought of that oops. "With...you?" She asks, hesitantly. Should have thought before acting, not that Nel's ever been known for such a thing...

Orpheus pads softly in from the StarCraft Courtyard.

Linora backs toward the door, eyeing Shanel warily. "With me?!" She's so surprised at this notion that she backs straight into someone, her arms filled with a sopping wet bedsheet. The floor is still mostly covered with water, but Lin's wet enough that she doesn't even care. With a gasp she turns around, sharing the water with Orpheus. "Sorry," she says, grinning up at him. Pay no attention to the chaos in the Main Hall. Appies at work.

Just entering the hall for the first time since the sun has risen, Orpheus can only blink at the water-covered floor. The trio of girls are noted as his lips curve in a faint grin, easily sliding into place even as Linora shares the water. How nice. "Shards, what'd you do? Move the lake in here?" Okay, so he exaggerates and not even very cleverly -- but it's Orph. "How am I supposed to get back to the dorms without getting wet?" Heaven forbid!

Mayala gives a slight wave to Orph as she picks up the soaked bedsheet and follows Shanel to the courtyard to wring out the sheet, even though most of the water is getting on her.

"Or I can sleep on the floor." Shanel quickly responses. Just a thought....She edges around Lin, pushing the wet sheets into Orph in the process. "It's not big deal." Stepping outside she clumsily attempts to wring out the oversized, heavy thing in her hands. Not quite making it without dropping it. "Shards." Can be heard as one end dips to the ground.

"We were scrubbin' the floor. I slipped." Linora gives Orph an eyeroll, as if it were his fault and not her own clumsiness. "And I dunno?" She shrugs, standing dripping as Shanel edges around her and Orph to wring out her sheet. Shouldn't be /that/ hard to get across the main hall without getting wet. Kaz did it, after all. A moment later she backs out the door, leaving him standing there, and starts wringing, giggling a bit as Shanel's sheet ends up dirty as well as soaked. "Oh, yeah. This was a good idea."

Mayala goes home.

Orpheus gets wetter, the front of his shirt giving the appearance he spilled something on himself. Shanel is eyed for this, the blame falling on her even as he moves over to oh-so-nicely blink down at her sheet. "Was it supposed to drop like that?" Oh-so-sweetly he queries, all but batting dark eyelashes at the girls, blue eyes innocently wide. Someone's in a rare mood, it would seem -- rarer still going by his next words: "Want help carrying that out?"

Shanel looks up in shock. Orph...offering...to help? Not something to be passed up. "Sure, grab that end?" Not quite sure of herself anymore Shanel holds out one end of the sheet trying so hard not to drop it again.

Linora stops mid-wring to stare at Orph... offering to help. No, she wasn't hearing things, Shanel heard it too. With a little chuckle, she squeezes the rest of the water out of the sheet in her hands, more or less finishing off her clothing, and hauls it back inside for another go.

"Eh, sure," Orpheus says easily, moving over the pick up the end and help the younger girl with her load. He pauses before actually moving, returning Linora's stare. "What?" Shanel's early somewhat shocked look registers, and he looks between the two of them. "C'mon, I'm not that lazy." Honest. Believe 'im..? "Besides, it's twice as big as you are," he adds with a grin for Shanel. "Er, why are you carrying this out there again?"

"It's all wet." Shanel says slowly. How could he have forgotten? He's all wet. Blinking when one of Orph's other comments finally sinks in. "I'm not /that/ little." As indignent as any 14 turn old would be.

Linora is back on her hands and knees on the floor, diligently sopping up as much water as a damp bedsheet can absorb, looking up to giggle a bit at the conversation in the doorway. "Sure y'are," she says lightly, deliberately leaving it unclear whether she's referring to Shanel's size or Orph's laziness. Oh, making progress now. She scoops up the soaked bedsheet and makes her way carefully to the door.

Orpheus, of course, choses to interpret Linora as backing him up. "See, you are that little!" First with the oh-so-clever rejoinder, then with another question: "Okay, yeah, it's wet, but so what?" Blink. "Oh, you're going to dry them outside?" That option is turned over in his mind, gears almost visibly straining to turn out a thought. "Where?"

Shanel would facepalm if she had any free hands. Having been warned was nothing compared to the really thing. "Twist the sheet." She twists the sheet in her hands causing some of the water to drip out. "The opposite direction I am." Quickly, no more questions like that last one. "And," With out looking up, "Lin ment you are that lazy." Short brown locks can't quite hide the little smirk.

Linora wisely refrains from comment as she joins them in the courtyard. Much more fun to have them argue over what she might have meant than to clear up the confusion. One end of the heavy wet sheet is deliberately dropped, and she starts twisting from the top down, tossing the already-wrung-out section over her shoulder as she works her way down, apparently oblivious to the growing puddle she's standing in. "Almost done," she remarks brightly, popping back inside to soak up some more water.

Blink. "Hey, wait a second." Orpheus pauses, mid-twist as he watches Linora go back in and soak up more of the water. "Are you--" Here he pauses, going back to work twisting, just as Shanel instructed, only the wrong way. "--girls drying this with someone's sheets? They weren't already wet?" Finally noticing the direction he'd been twisting, he switches quickly. No one saw that, right? He's clever.

Snort. Snicker. Outright laughter. "Don't worry," Shanel gasps out, "they're mine." Trying so hard not to double over and drop the sheet. What a mess that would make;) Speaking of messes..."Grab that sheet over there." Gaining control of her convulsing Shanel points to the one left by the stairs. "And start mopping." She heads back inside to grab another puddle. Almost done.

Linora grins broadly, dragging her dripping sheet through a large puddle. "Clever, huh?" she teases, pale eyes sparkling Orph-wards before she looks back over at Shanel. "You shoulda took some from one-a the empty cots." The ones left over when the FAQ was cleaned out of apprentices by Searching dragons. Slap-splash, she hauls her sheet outside and starts wringing.

"Yeah, I would've taken from Enpec's rather than mine if I had been doing it." Here Orpheus takes the time to regard Shanel almost pityingly -- poor dear, she's just not that swift, eh? "Me? Grab that sheet?" He looks across the hall, apparently still less than eager to cross the wet floor despite the damp shirt that still clings to his frame. "Tell you what, you grab it, mop, and /then/ bring it here. I'll wring 'em out." He can do that.

Shanel snorts, "Yea, whatever." Shrugging to both, "I'll just sleep on one of the empty cots." She pauses, tilting her head to one side. "Or just take the sheets." Maybe not the quickest but not the slowest either. Mopping as she move towards the door, Nel gathers the sheet in both hands, throws it Orph-wards, and heads back in for the other sheet.

"Now /that's/ a good idea." Linora nods solemnly, wringing out her sheet. Sigh. They /must/ be almost done, right? How much water was /in/ that bucket? Finally she drags the wrung-out sheet back in. "Oh... it's much better'n I thought." With Shanel's sheetful, it'll only take one more. At last. She sets to work sopping, working around the corners of the room now to get the last drops.

Orpheus catches the wet-wet bundle awkwardly, nearly dropping it twice and just barely catching it each time. With each effort to recapture the slipping sheet, his clothes get a little wetter, until it looks like he feel face-first in a puddle. "Just, er, keep mopping," he offers supportingly, peering at the floor as he wrings out the sheet, finally getting a firm grip on it. "You know, this doesn't seem like an effecient way to clean." How astute of him, no?

Dragging the last sheet behind her to make sure none of the floor was missed, Shanel has to ask, "How much water was in the bucket?" Wearily, she's starting get hungry, Shanel gathers up the last wet sheet and brings it to the courtyard for Orpheus to wring out.

Shanel feezes in place and can only stare at the boy. Where is his brain???? He obveously hadn't seen what they had started mopping the water up with.

Linora sighs, dragging her sheet - and the last bit of water - out into the courtyard. "It was nearly full." Because she'd been nearly done. Wring. Splash. Could Lin /be/ any wetter? At Orph's comment, she casually splashes a little water his way. "Got a better idea?" She'd still be sopping up water next Turn if she'd kept up with the little rag she'd started with.

"Nearly full?" Orpheus again eyes the floor, then sheets, then the girls -- and offers an obvious answer: "Yeah, why not use less water?" Duh. See? He can pull something half-smart, or at least if heard out of context, once in a while. "Obviously there was... a lot of it." Right, a lot. As he explains his brilliant idea, he wrings the sheet brought by Shanel dutifully.

Shanel is seriously contemplating smacking the boy. Older maybe but any smarter. Normally Nel has far more pationance but after cleaning up water for an hour it's about gone. Frowning a resolutely clasping her hands behind her clinging, wet shirt, Nel just glares.

Linora finishes wringing. At last. And spreads the damp sheet over the low wall to dry, weighting the edges down with a couple of largeish stones so it won't blow away. "Yeah... good idea, Orph." She doesn't even bother arguing, even though a better answer would be, don't fall down and dump the bucket all over the floor. One hand absently rubs her hip - oh yeah, there'll be a bruise there. "Thanks for helpin' and stuff." She gives them each a little smile and trudges back into the hall, so exhausted that she's even forgotten she'd been hungry.

Shanel waves to Linora's retreating back. "Good night." Poor girl looks exhausted. Must have been hard doing chores under Kazander's eye.

Unaware of the hostile glares and stares of the two females, Orpheus whistles cheerfully before looping the last sheet up in his arms and spreading it over the wall. "No problem," he says cheerily, waving a hand at the sleepy one. "Sleep well. And really, next time use less water!" He'll be on about that for turns, have no doubt of it.