Logs:Dragonriders in Interval
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| RL Date: 31 January, 2016 |
| Who: Edyis, J'sae |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Edyis and Jase meet and talk of the changing roles of dragonriders in the greater world. |
| Where: Craft Complex, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 21, Month 12, Turn 39 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Aishani/Mentions, Azaylia/Mentions, Jasevan/Mentions, Jocelyn/Mentions, N'rek/Mentions, Tevrane/Mentions |
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---< Craft Complex, High Reaches Weyr(#2176RJ) >----------------------------<
A passageway hewn into the rock and heavily patched with cement leads a
short distance in to the bowl wall, with a door on either side. Lit by
regularly spaced glows, the white-washed walls have been covered over by
colorful tapestries, wall hangings and pieces of art made from metal and
wood. To the left of the entranceway, just a single step inside, a spiral
staircase opens out of the wall, leading upwards through the stone.
Further down, a doorway opens to either side of the corridor, while at the
far end, there is a hewn-stone staircase leading up to the residential
quarters, wreathed by two final doors to private quarters and the bathing
room.
The door leading to the east opens into an expansive room that seems to
provide both general working space - with long, bare benches and chairs -
and a cozy lounge complete with over-stuffed sofas and a few fuzzy
armchairs. Three tall windows are carved into the stone, and offer air and
light when the heavy wooden shutters are left open, though the lounge area
has to make do mostly with glows. A hearth at the back of the room
provides both heat and basic cooking facilities. The white-washed walls
are bedecked with decoration - from quilts, to tapestries, to wooden
carvings and metal sculptures.
The western door leads into another passage, off of which the main
workrooms have been built. The loading dock is at the northern end,
leading back out into the bowl, with the rest of the rooms leading deeper
and deeper into the wall.
-----------------------------< Active Players >-----------------------------
Edyis F 22 5'4" slight, brown hair, brown eyes 56s
J'sae M 25 6'2" wiry, brown hair, hazel eyes 0s Though snow might occupy the bowl in a semi-permanent state by this point in the winter, today's lack of actual falling snow makes it a more-appealing-than most day outdoors. With fewer of those in winter, it might explain why the expansive room through the east door that houses both a general work space as well as the lounge is less populated than usual. There are apprentices of various sorts dotting the benches, either studying theory from books or with one another, or working on hands on practice. J'sae might be mistaken for an older apprentice with his youthful looks, but he sits apart from those younger and by comparison is certainly old enough not to be so. His jacket lies over the bench bearing his wingrider's knot with its blue loop and the badge of both High Reaches and Tundra. The jacket, Istan styled, is all but forgotten in the focus the man has for the small box in front of him, only the box looks oddly incomplete with grooves and sections missing. Those sections might be accounted for by the variety of slender wood items arrayed around it. It must be as yet unfinished as the wood looks raw, sanded but not yet stained or painted to any pretty color. Though she isn't wearing her knot, Edyis is still in flight gear, face half buried in a thickly knitted scarf as she makes her way to the complex, adjusting the strap of her satchel as ink-dark eyes scan the benches and apprentices about. Her path halts as she takes note of both the jacket and box, halting for several moments in indecision. Curiosity wins out and she moves close enough to get a better look at the box, a slow smile that shows in her eyes even if her mouth can't be viewed. "Is that - what I think it is?" Hazel eyes bounce (reluctantly) away from the problem at hand (literally), one hand holding a delicate piece of wood with a small groove along one edge that must be meant to fit just so into the face of the box. J'sae's voice comes distracted at first, "That depends," and finally his attention catches up with his gaze and a cheerful smile spreads wide across his lips. "What do you think it is?" His manner, once disengaged from his work, is one of easy friendliness, the sort that may well be taken as an invitation to join him. Edyis beams at him, settling in an available seat to get a closer look. "Is it one of those boxes you have to shift the panels on to open? I saw some for sale with one of the trader families once." The red scarf gets tugged off, and she returns the smile with one of her own. "Then, yeah. That's exactly what it is." Jase grins in a way that suggests he might be a little flattered. "Most people don't recognize them. I mean, I guess there's some clues," he admits with a touch of a blush, given how disassembled it currently is. "There's not a lot of demand for them, so they're not-- I mean, they're just novelty items, mostly." Not the kind of thing that respectable crafters spend the majority of their time on. "I'm Jase, by the way," he offers a hand after rubbing it on his pant leg to clear any remaining sawdust. "Zajeth's WoodCrafter." "Maybe, but I always liked them, a lock that doesn't require a key." Edyis grins, "You wouldn't be able to do a larger one would you, about oh, this big?" Roughly gesturing something the size of a large shoebox. "I'm Edyis, Brown Akluseth's, it's nice to meet you." Grinning as she accepts the hand. "Respectable sometimes is just another word for boring I think." J'sae's shake is firm, but not so much as to suggest he's trying to prove something. His hands are, as one might expect, calloused from turns of working with his hands. "Yeah, I actually have some squirreled away in my weyr that I've worked on over the turns. Mostly the smaller ones seem the most practical, otherwise you have to place a piece of furniture just so so that you can slide the panels or whatever." The bluerider, of course, addresses the work he clearly loves so well before the personal, "Well met, Edyis," which seems warmly genuine. "Do I get to know what kinds of things you would put in a puzzle box of about yay," he roughly matches tie size with his hands, "big? And if you want to think about it another way, it's not so much that it doesn't require a key, it's just that it's a key you either have or you don't. Intelligence can be a key," he supposes thoughtfully. Edyis grins, "Boring things, Ledgers and reports, but there's this bookshelf I have in my weyr, I think one of those would look nice on it, and I wouldn't have to waste good leather on ledger and report covers so they look decent on the shelves." Girl problems right? "I'm sad to hear you don't get more of a response to them really, and you are right about the key I suppose." Her hands dive into the satchel and she pulls a dog-eared notebook out and starts flipping through it. "Here, this is the bookshelf." Pushing the sketch in the bluerider's direction. "It's been by experience," J'sae answers with a skepticism made playful by the continued grin, "that ledgers and reports are rarely boring things unless you've no stake in what's in them." He would be the sort to like hidework, wouldn't he? He sets down the piece he's been absent-mindedly holding to pull the sketch toward himself, looking it over with real interest. "Interesting motif," he indicates the ornamentally carved sides. "And really, I'm a rider now. So, just getting used to the idea that I can craft in my duty day again. It was fortunate that I didn't get much response before. I'd never have been able to keep up with demand. And really, here, I do more repair and renovation sort of work. Officially, I was ornamental carpentry," he looks at the sketch again, "I might even recognize that handiwork," it would fall into his field of expertise, though certainly he's not claiming it himself. "You'd want the box to match? Or a little different?" Edyis studies him all the more curiously for the skepticism. "Touche." The comment on the Motif has her looking down at the sketch again, with a softened smile. "Suits the man who made it, his brown's a forest minded thing." There is a nod at mention of crafting again, "Tundra's the weyr's new project in that regard, Seems to be producing excellent results at least, hopefully it will go a long way in helping us to be more self sufficient." "Not perfectly match, maybe an ocean motif in a similar style?" She ponders aloud returning her attention to the bluerider. "You came from Ista?" Her chin tipping in the direction of the jacket as she looks over the puzzle box curiously. "His brown? Cool," J'sae's eyebrow quirks with almost comical surprise but easy, eager acceptance; he must not meet many other carpentry-inclined riders. "Was he formally trained?" He wonders, looking at the sketch again, more closely now. "It's certainly something that's made me happy," Tundra. It's a politic answer though, given the proximity of the other apprentices, it seems likely that speaking vaguely is the only way to go; not all people feel as Edyis does, the rumors might say, even if discontent seems very individual rather than (yet) Craft-wide. "Ocean motif. I might have something," he grins. "Ista offers a lot in the way of that sort of inspiration, as you might imagine. I transferred this summer, for Tundra. Zajeth only regrets his lack of easy beaches sometimes," that's wry but clearly fond. "Are you from here?" Edyis laughs a little, "Not to my knowledge, it was something he did because he loved it. I doubt he has time for it anymore." His politic answer earns another chuckle, and a glance around the room might suggest she'd forgotten about the other apprentices. "At least, it gives the people who love their craft a chance to keep honing those skills, and hopefully the crafts can benefit from some of the unique opportunities impression can bring." She smiles more broadly at the talk of Ista. "Sounds like you'll just have to think up excuses to visit on rest days. " His question earns a smile, "Nabol, but I've lived in the weyr for the last seven or eight turns." "Hopefully," is equally politic, but certainly more heartfelt of the experiment that is Tundra. "Oh, we do. Ista, but other places too. Zajeth is never content too long in one place, it seems like. It wasn't, in the end, too much of a hardship for him. "It's impressive," he gives the sketch and likely that compliment extends to the brownrider that made it. J'sae politely slides the sketch back to this brownrider's possession. "Nabol. Wow. I hear they've been having rough times," probably he'd even gone there himself to help with some of the harvesting; he does seem the type. "Hopefully your family hasn't been poorly affected?" That too sounds more genuine than polite, but it's both really. "Nothing wrong with a restless spirit." Edyis chuckles softly, and of the complement given she nods her appreciation. Nabol's mention, however, earns a wrinkle of her nose. "Hard to say really. If the plague were all, it might be one thing but it seems that the area is destined to be a hotbed of political trouble for turns to come. " Her family's mention earns a simple shake of her head. "None of them are left in Nabol, though I go back and visit my father's friends from time to time." "Not at all," J'sae agrees completely, smile still lighting his face though it's one that presses his lips together now. "Glad that your family isn't in the midst then," he offers, firmly, glancing back to his box. "It seems like the plague stirred up trouble a number of places. I'm not really the sort to tell a Lady Holder what to do, but I have to admit if my beholden Lady chose to do as Lady Tevrane did, I'm not sure I could blame my father for losing some measure of confidence in her. I mean, it sounded to me like she never explained publicly why she did what she did?" He seems unsure; his information may be incomplete. "Then again, there are times that explaining just digs the whole deeper." He might have experience, though not gaining any here now, hopefully. Edyis's lips thin, and she nods. "There's a rationality to both viewpoints. But, I think to explain it would only stir further unrest. Would you want to hear that your loved ones were expendable because they weren't blooded, and, therefore, unfit to lead?" She poses hypothetically. "What she does from this point on is what will be the determining factor, if she gets her people the help and support they need, or if she flounders." Her fingertips play with the leather necklace at her throat. "Really we need more information." "I can't imagine anyone would like to hear their loved ones were expendable, whatever the reason," J'sae answers ruefully. "In the end, we're one degree away from the affairs of the Holds. It affects us, certainly; everything does. Interconnected web and all that," he waves that idea off as if it were a pre-determined fact he's long accepted. "And bringing the tithes from that one Hold definitely puts us more in the midst, but... I don't know. Seems like maybe we shouldn't involve ourselves if we can help it." Maybe. It's probably the first time that the bluerider looks genuinely unsure in the course of the conversation. Edyis smiles at the conclusion, "That decision, unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, is not up to people like you and me. " Edyis notes with a tap of her fingers against the table. "But I'm not against helping the people get back on their feet, especially since the meals we eat and the goods we use come from those tithes." "Nah, of course not. Blue and brownriders, what're we gonna do?" J'sae has good humor for that remark, so chances are good that he doesn't really buy into that whole metallic superiority thing. He lets his fingers drift over the pieces absently as he thinks. "There's definitely something to helping where there's need, but I think there's also a line because some take the word need too liberally. I might not need the Weyr's help, but certainly extra hands, not to mention dragons, would make my work go faster. And there's a danger in getting comfortable with that idea. We won't always be in Interval. Though I can say I'm glad to be living and riding now." As opposed to when there's Thread to fight. Edyis laughs, "bide our time and then go all out for world domination?" Her grin slanting crookedly. "It's a fine line, though, but drills day in and day out don't help either. I mean yes it helps keep your skills sharp, but there's nothing at stake." Propping her chin in her hand. "Could do," Jase does seem an agreeable sort and he's no less now, though there's humor bright in his hazel eyes. "Could be things at stake, arguably. Unexpected Fall has happened before." With the comet pass that's now long ago. "I think there's probably a happy medium, but we're still so new into the Interval that we haven't found it yet. There's time still for us all to figure it out, of course, but doesn't make butting your head against a wall of what doesn't work any less frustrating while you're doing it. Experiments like Tundra are good for at least that reason. Even if we find out it doesn't work, that's one more thing to know." He's clearly some variety of optimist. Edyis nods, "Things happen, in this weyr it would seem they happen quite frequently. Faranth forbid an early fall hit. After the hit Fort took with the Plague, not to mention some of the other weyrs. Who knows if our numbers would hold up." The idea sends a visible shiver down the young woman's spine. "And I'm certainly not saying I'm against having traditional wings that serve to keep those skills sharp, but you are right, it is a balance." She arcs her arms over her head in a lazy stretch. "You ever run into these sorts of things in Ista?" "Yeah. Hard to say if the plague toll would've been worse or better in a Pass. Still hard, we have fewer so if it came to fighting Thread, we'd need every one and the losses are that much more costly," J'sae taps one of the pieces of wood, a slender dowel about the length of his finger against the tabletop without paying it any mind. "Ista's facing the same sorts of things in terms of finding the balance. I can't imagine any Weyr that's not, but it closed its boarders for the plague, turned away ships. The quarantines were pretty successful. And honestly, I might be the wrong person to ask about Ista's history. It was my first posting away from WoodCraft and I Impressed at my first hatching, which was only two turns ago," and he's here now, so, not much in the way of Istan history. "Reaches has three healthy queens at least though Iesaryth and Hraedhyth were healthy too when they were lost. With the way babies are going around here, I don't think the weyr population will be anything to worry about in the next turns." Still there's a hesitance to the thought. an uncertainty that lingers. For a moment, her gaze goes distant and there's a deep sigh. "Duty calls, let me know what I owe you for the boxes, and I'll buy you a welcome to the frozen north drink next time I catch you yeah?" "Dragon population drops during the Interval. The queens, three of them or fewer, seem to know what's needed, although I gather that Aidavanth was something of a surprise," and that amuses J'sae. "The fact is that fewer dragonriders are needed during an Interval, so there are less eggs now. I've tried to sketch-- tried to imagine the clutches of the Pass with thirty or even forty eggs. With ninety or a hundred candidates filling out the barracks." Judging by his expression, it's a marvel he seems not able to full grasp it's so different than the reality he knows. All that, perhaps just in time, his smile returning to something steady. "Clear skies, Edyis. I'll take you up on that drink." And why not? For now though, he bends back to his work. |
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