Straps Lesson!
AKA Fun With Leather

Weyrling Barracks (#7821)
The large covered entryways open into two immense U-shaped caverns that stretch back deep into the rock of the cliffside.  Glow baskets lining the cavern walls cast a soft light dispelling the shadows and illuminating the home of all High Reaches weyrlings.  Stone couches, some smaller for the greens and blues and some, for bronzes and the occasional gold, so large they have to be climbed into, rise up to loom over the walkways of well-packed dirt.
Along the walls nearest the entrances, shelves and pegs sport several sets of leathers and various books and tools needed when teaching and practicing; crates and supplies also take up residence in various nooks and crannies.  Toward the back, a large, man-dug pool for use by the dragonets and their lifemates and several large containers kept full of fresh meat serve as conveniences for the busy residents of these barracks.
Snuggled in with the leather supplies and tools are Dana, Pyk, Primavera, Kernow, Gavin, Vedra, Stanzi, Pyre, Whirlwind, Larson, Autumn, Raksha, and Hayama.
Bronze Sendakth, brown Hanselth, blue Babarth, green Miravith, blue Lainnoth, brown Anwyllth, and brown Orsoth are here.
You see Weyrling Progress Record, Dragon Wing, and It here.
You notice M'rice, Gr'tel, and Celeste asleep here.
Fye, Daeyn, and Shawn are here.
Obvious exits:
Staff Office     Bowl     Couches

Auri comes out of Miravith's couch.

Fye strides, a light bounce in her step, to the Bowl.

Lainnoth waltzes loftily, regal grace coming easily to each step, to the Bowl.

Shawn comes in from the bowl... Ors is still dripping from his recent bath and Shawn's hair is still dripping because Ors' baths always involve her getting dunked in one way or another, "Afternoon all..." she drawls out a greeting...

Anwyllth's head lifts, neck curving to one side and eyes glimmering with some private amusement. His eyes track his lifemate as she emerges from their couch, looking unusually frazzled. "Afternoon, Shawn ... Lylia ..."

"Gooood afternoon." Lylia strides in herself, dragging a number of things. Leather, rope, and something utterly strange and purple. "And how is everyone today?" A too-dangerous beam appears on her face as she tosses her load down on a bench, plopping herself down beside it. "Is everyone here ready for an oh-so-/fascinating/ lesson?" Yes, you can /hear/ the enthusiasm in Lyli's voice. Riiiight.

Auri is less calm in her entrance, literally bouncing in, happy as she waves to all in the room, though something strange tinges that bright beam. "I'm good n' how're you, Lylia?" she pipes, automatically. "I'm vurry, vurry ready for a lesson, yes I am. But Lyli...Mira's gonna /grow/ more, right? She's so much smaller than everyone right now. I mean, I know she's a green, but stillllll." The girl's voice stretches out in a whine.

Shawn grins, shaking her head and thus her curls, splattering the immediate vicinity with water... Ors takes an object lesson and does the same, unfortunately, his immediate vicinity is a large portion of the entryway... "Ors!" Shawn chides half-heartedly...  and slips onto a bench...the bear brown hovering somewhere behind her, "Sure..." its about that time, yup.

Daeyn cocks an eyebrow and looks suspicious.  "This lesson wouldn't involve endangering life and limb, now, would it?" she rumbles in mixed alto-tenor voice.  "Oh, I somehow don't think they're done," she assures Auri as she lays a gentle hand on her brown's neck.  Anwyllth's eyes lid to slits, almost slumberous.

"Of /course/ Miravith will grow more. But she's probably gonna be a small one.... Not compared to you, though." Lylia eyes the green for a moment, blanked out stare before she glances back at Daeyn with raised eyebrow. "Doesn't it always? But less than normal. Hopefully....." Never know with Lylia. Rummaging for a moment, she glances up at the group. "You all have been up here and know D'renn. And Lis. You /have/ to know something about leather. Anyone know what you want to watch out for in the leather you choose for your riding straps? What bad things there are?"

Auri is in a strange mood, worrying about her oh-so-sensitive and meek dragon, obsessing that the little green might get her delicate feelings hurt by being called a runt, and such things. But she's a good little girl, and speaks when she's spoken to, and answers the question quickly. "Ugly spots," she offers, twirling a blonde curl around her finger. "Right?"

Shawn does what she's been doing in all her classes, eyes narrow, nose wrinkles and she keeps her mouth shut...at least for a few moments... Ors nudges her shoulder and Shawn brushes him back, "Leave off, Ors..." she mumbles, studying the strips of leather laid out on the table...the dragon just chuffs and settles down, fallumping into the expanse behind his lifemate...

Daeyn spreads her hands.  "Of course ... of course ... I shouldn't have asked."  The corners of her lips quirk into a smile.  "Water damage, poor quality?" she offers, settling into an almost felinic half-curl.

Lylia lounges, keeping an eye on Orsoth and Miravith. The former to ensure he doesn't know over a table, the latter because there's something too cute about her... "Hrm?" Blinking, she gives Daeyn an absent nod. "Exactly. Water damage, bad tanning, fraying or worn leather.... Auri." A wicked grin crosses her face as she holds a particularly foul-smelling, nasty strip towards the greenling. "Might you tell me what's wrong with this?" Beam.

"Ew, ew, ew, ew, /ew/!" Auri bats at the air in front of her, between the girl and the leather. "It's /gross/, and /dirty/, and just plain icky. And...and...it's got dirty spots, and..." The weyrling-brat's voice raises an octave as she recites, "There's water damage, bad tanning ,fraying, and worn leather?"

"Um.... No, Auri, not exactly." Lylia stares down at the leather for a moment, before looking up at the girl. "I don't see fraying. Or it being that worn. It /is/ rotted. Which is why there's the stench and the kind of odd texture.... Any of you want to feel it to see what I mean?" She holds it out towards the 'lings, grinning.

Shawn shakes her head, "Not especially, Lylia." nose wrinkles slightly... is Shawn breathing through her mouth?

Daeyn holds up her hands.  "I've seen it before," she murmurs, shaking her head.  "Absolutely no need."

"Well, I was almost right," says Auri staunchly, as Mira pokes her cute little head into the circle, and makes swirly googly-eyes at everyone. "Ew, /nooo/," responds the mini-weyrling, backing away and holding onto her green for support as the leather is waved at her. "That's so gross, Lylia. Stop it!" Squeak. Squeak.

"Awww." Lylia gives a little pout for a moment, lower lip quivering slightly before she tosses the leather over her shoulder into a corner, just giving a shrug. "Good to be rid of that. And if you're /sure/, Auri...." Another evil grin. But she /should/ try to be nice to the weylings. Hehe. "Anyway, you'll all have the /joyful/ job of sewing straps for your dragons. We get leather for straps in these strips about that size," she jerks a finger at the thrown strip, "and for this first set you'll need anywhere from 3 to 6, depending on your dragon's size. The nice thing about weyrling straps is that you don't have to sew new ones every sevenday since you'll use more leather than is needed, with a buckle so you can adjust the size. Unless you /want/ to do them that often..." She just trails off, staring at them. Mwaha.

Shawn shakes her head, she's repaired straps before and its a pain in the dragon tail... "No worries, Lylia... don't think any of us are going to want that much extra work..." she grins lopsidedly, "Now say if D'renn were willing to do it /for/ us... then, maybe I'd consider it..."

Daeyn rubs idly at her face, then nods.  "I can't see any reason for doing more work than is really needed," she says quietly.
Auri doesn't quite follow Shawn, and has no idea her fellow weyrling is joking. "Ooh, do you think D'renn would? That'd be awfully nice of him. I kind of want to do them myself, but I'll let him sew if he wants to." Oh, how generous the girl is.

"If you can convince him to, Shawn, I'll pay a mark or two to watch....." D'renn sewing all the 'lings straps. Heehee. Lylia's not gonna, the brownrider just giving a shrug, before scooting over slightly, pointing at Miravith as her example. "Your weyrling straps are gonna have one big difference from your adult straps, and that's that there's only one loop instead of two. The loop is gonna go between the fourth and fifth neckridges. Even if you don't need to sew every week, you /do/ have to do a couple pairs of straps as your dragons grow, plus passenger straps, which have a lot of loops. And you brownriders are going to have /fun/, the amount of leather you'll be sewing." Another innocent little grin. "And, when you aren't doing that, you need to speak to the weyrweavers about getting a riding belt. It's made specially, so that it'll hook you to your straps."

Daeyn has to smile.  "He'd probably dye them all raspberry - or lime-green - when we weren't watching," she warns, then falls silent to listen again with customary over-solemnity.  "People don't dangle ..." she stops that question as the singularly bizarre image hits her.

Shawn is taking mental notes... looking over the awls and needles laying about on the table.

"And if you want, you get to dye them." Lylia immediately picks up what Daeyn said. "Buckets and dye in the back, the longer you soak them in the dye, the darker the shade. If there's any specific colors or patterns you have trouble with, you can always ask the weyrweavers. After dyeing them, rinse the leather with cold water to get out any excess dye... Any questions yet?" Peeeer.

Auri's eyes glaze and become distant, jaw falling open slack as she fantasizes about the beautifully frilly, lady-like leathers her dragon is going to have, a single word falling from her mouth demurely. "Piiiink..."

Auri *is strange. :)

Lylia *waves rotted leather under her nose to wake her up.

Auri *wakes up shrieking.

Daeyn * cracks up.

Daeyn glances over at Auri somewhat warily and edges away from the girl, cautiously putting Anwyllth's bulk between herself and the other weyrling.  "No, of course I won't let her put you in pink ... don't growl at me!"

"Pink?" Lylia stares at Auri for a moment, her own expression becoming equally blank. "Pink." Just muttering the word, she snaps her fingers in front of Auri's face. "You there?"

A group of random brats> Oh. Simply beautiful conversationalist, really. She's just going on and on for hours. But still. It's what she /doesn't/ say. His own arm slides around her back as he replies: "Heya. What's new?"

Auri blinks dreamily. "Hmmm? Yes Nanny Pyrene, I'll go to bed now like a good bra- huh? Oh. Um, yes Lylia. I'm here." And with a bright hyper beam, she demonstrates her awakeness, cerulean eyes opened /wide/. "Is there anything else we need to know?"

Daeyn smothers a chuckle, the corners of her lips quirking in amusement.  "Can you even get true pink out of leather?" she wonders idly.

"Um..." Lylia rasies an eyebrow, backing away slightly. Let's focus on Daeyn. She's more more sane. Once again, she picks up her cheerful note. "Your straps will have two buckles. One to put the straps on, and one to adjust the tightness, for the comfort. In weyrlinghood, it'll let you let out the straps a /lot/." One point down. "And when you sew them, you'll need to fold it over, doubling it lengthwise. And stitch it /carefully/. It's tough stuff, but it needs to be done /well/."

Daeyn nods intently, eyes unfocusing slightly as she other memorizes some part of this or consults Anwyllth.  "That makes sense ... even given the buckles, how long can we expect our first set to last?"  Practical is Daeyn, the non-seamstress.

Auri waves a chubby hand in the air. "Ly? Ly? Mira wants to know what the buckles are made out of. 'Cause we want pretty buckles, to match our pretty /pink/ straps." Just...randomly. "And yah, how long?" the girl seconds Daeyn.

"It should last you almost to senior weyrlinghood if you put the proper amount of extra leather. You have to make your adult ones then." Lylia gives a short nod, grinning slightly. "If your dragon goes through an excessive growth spurt, maybe another before then." Auri's just looked at for a moment, before she gives a shrug. "Mostly brass, but not exclusively, so you have the option of a goldish color or a silverish color to match. They're in the box over there." She points vaguely towards the back.

Daeyn looks vaguely relieved.  "That doesn't sound so difficult ..." she murmurs, rumbles really, in lower volume but far deeper tone.  She glances up at Anwyllth.  "Si ... exactly what I was thinking," she agrees.

Auri strokes the back of Miravith's neck gently, giving the green a smooch on big dragon cheek. "I'm sure you'll grow. I don't mind making straps for you. You're going to be a big healthy green dragon, yes you are." Mira, on the other hand, doesn't seem the least bit worried, craning beryl neck to examine  the buckles. Ooooh....shiiiinny...

"Well, you and Anwyllth are right. It's not /really/.... But making /good/ riding straps takes time, plus you've got your classes and lifemate to deal with. Make sure to check that the leather doesn't irritate the hide, that it properly fits, all that." See? Lifemates are good helpers. Lylia gives a little grin, shuffling among the needles and awls.

Lyri's whip hisses softly as it snakes across the ground. A sudden, loud CRACK breaks the near-silence as she eyes you with a nasty sort of speculation. 'Hmmmmm, where would you ..... like .... it first? Heh heh.' The braided leather begins its soft hiss again as she waits for your answer with an eager smirk.

"I think that's all?" Lylia peers up for a moment, blinking. "Unless you have any more questions. If you need any help putting your straps together, or putting them on your dragon, just ask."