The Sticky Bandits

Writers: Duskdog, Heather, Iluva, Sia, Yvonne
Date Posted: 6th August 2024

Characters: N'kayden, H'taysh, Aydhara, Casmari, A'radess, Ketlyn
Description: A prank is planned for Weyrlingmaster K'lvin
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 1, day 4 of Turn 12

N'kayden

"You think other people around this place do work? Or is it just us?" N'kayden asked the group of gathered Weyrlings as he returned from his evening chore, which had been filling firestone sacks in preparation for the upcoming Threadfall. He had expected there to be some sort of _reprieve_ from chores once Impressing, if only for a bit, but it seemed as if the Weyrlingmaster had other plans.

H'taysh rolled his shoulders, a little sore from his own chores, though no more than he would have been from a hard day's work with the laborers. "Nah, there's lots of people who've been working real hard. This is a piece of cake next to that. Uh, mostly, anyways. Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting there to be actual _work_ being a Candidate at all, and being a weyrling's worse!"

Ketlyn rolled her eyes. "What were you expecting, then? To loaf around and have dragons fan you with their wings all day?"

"I would like to have a dragon fan me with their wings all day." Aydhara said. "It took you guys long enough. I've been released from chores for ages." Ten minutes, actually, but she lounged in the weyrling barracks like she belonged there.

"Well, yeah," H'taysh replied defensively. "It's not like they advertise Candidacy as a _job_ or anything. They just say 'hey these people are here to Impress dragons'. When you sign up for a labor gig, you know exactly what you're getting." He didn't really feel like getting into it with mean and sour girls, though (he very pointedly tried not to look at Aydhara), so he tried to swallow his annoyance back down. Selkirth would be unhappy if she felt it. "We oughtta do something fun while we've got time and aren't dead asleep."

"That, my friend, sounds like the recipe for a prank," N'kayden said with a snap of his fingers. "We could all use a laugh in these trying times of woe," he glanced at his sister, "and exhaustion."

"Yeah, we should." A'radess said, stretching a bicep. "Nothing too crazy. I don't think I could take the joy on K'lvin's face when he doles out a month of latrine duty."

Casmari came dragging in. She looked grimy and tired. "I don't know if you've all had to use that glue stuff that the carpenters brought with them, but... I _literally_ glued myself to the floor of the closet I was working in. What's that stuff made of?" She pointed to her pant leg where the knee of her pants was ripped open.

Aydhara made a face at H'taysh, though for once in her life she bit her tongue. She didn't want his stupid dragon getting herself riled up either, though there was no accounting for taste. It was easier to (mostly) ignore him in favor of her brother, or Casmari's ripped pants. "Do you think you can get any more of the carpenter's glue? Y'think K'lvin would notice if there was just a bit of glue on his desk? Glue all his stuff down?"

Now _that_ sounded exciting, even if it _did_ come from Aydhara. "The trick's just not to use too much so it's not too obvious...Or..." H'taysh paused as an idea occurred to him, his face practically lighting up. "Wait wait wait... what if we glued _him_ down?? Like... glue on the floor in front of his chair so his boots get glued when he sits there? Or no no no -- glue on his _chair_!"

"Wait, what?" Ketlyn looked up from her study notes, suddenly wishing she'd been paying better attention because she'd _thought_ she'd heard H'taysh say he wanted to glue K'lvin to a chair, and that couldn't be right.

"His _chair_!" N'kayden gasped in approval, suddenly perking up with energy. "That's so perfect. Imagine him sitting down to create _more chores_ for us to do, only to find himself glued to it!" He snapped his fingers. "We'll need a distraction, though, so he doesn't notice he's about to sit in a gluey chair."

H'taysh thought for a moment. "Somebody fall down? Or some people have an argument on the way in. Or, uh... even something easy, like somebody brings him a fake message or something. Maybe he'll sit down to read it."

"Oh pff, leave that to me." Aydhara said and gave an exaggerated sniffle. "I've got more than enough for a small emotional breakdown." Then her voice was bright again. "K'lvin won't know what hit him."

Ketlyn looked nervously between the other weyrlings. This was _not_ going to end well, but she was also tired of always being the one to say 'no'. "Um.. are we sure this is a good idea?"

A'radess caught the look and frowned simply because she raised a valid point. "Maybe only put glue where his clothing can make contact with the chair. No chance of his skin. Ketlyn's right," he smiled, "we don't wanna deglove him."

"Okay, so, glue on the seat and back only, no armrests?" N'kayden suggested.

"Unless he decides not to wear pants to class, yeah, then we'll have to just abort," H'taysh said. "But, uh, I don't think there's a very good chance of that. So just no armrests."

Aydhara snickered despite herself. "Sounds like we have a plan. Do we know where K'lvin is now? Ketlyn, do you want to keep an eye on him? That's plausible deniablity if you aren't with us."

"Um, I don't need deniability." She did, desperately. Ketlyn was already sweating. "But I can go find him. If you need someone to."

"Perfect. So we've got: Ketlyn on K'lvin watching duty, Aydhara on water-works and dramatics (should be easy), and then me and H'taysh will put the glue in his chair. Sound about right?" N'kevyn had meticulously ticked off the different parts of the plan on his fingers. "Oh, one more," he spun around and pointed a finger at Casmari. "And Casmari will _not_ tattle."

Casmari rolled her eyes and held her hands up. "I'm not helping, but I'm not a tattler."

Last updated on the August 18th 2024

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The Sticky Bandits