Logs:Lessons in Listening
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| RL Date: 20 May, 2015 |
| Who: B'ren, Quinlys, R'van |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Vadevjiath is more interested in leadership than R'van. Quinlys is smug (surprise!). |
| Where: Weyrling Training Cavern, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 9, Month 11, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
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| The leadership classes are just beginning with Quinlys' hand-selected crew; and one of these first lectures is an intro to theories of Threadfighting that has attracted one bonus pupil. While the other weyrlings listen up to the wingleader presenting, Vadevjiath is sitting quietly in the back--he can more than see over everyone else, after all--and watching with an intent expression. And when the wingleader pauses to ask a question of the group, it's Vadevjiath who answers promptly--a reply directly to Olveraeth and the wingleader's dragon as well. Look who's paying quite a lot of attention. R'van? R'van's being R'van, off in their couch working on his own projects. « Vadevjiath? » Olveraeth is not surprised, precisely, because surely he's aware of the bronze's presence as much as his rider is, but there's a glint of something in his reply: not amusement, not dismay, not... Perhaps he's pleased. Kamornth, however, is not: « YOU are not part of this lecture. » Quinlys, who has been sitting atop a the table, listening rather than actively participating in the lecture-- she, after all, never fought Thread herself-- excuses herself with a glance to B'ren, meandering past Vadevjiath, and out towards the barracks beyond. « But Kamornth, » puts in Olveraeth. « Is he wrong? » « I am listening, » answers Vadevjiath matter-of-factly; he's part of the class. Kamornth's displeasure earns a corresponding steeliness in Vadevjiath's voice: swords crossed. « And I am not wrong, » he adds to Olveraeth, though his own irritation isn't aimed that way--only the steady determination that so often characterizes him, moreso as he ages. « That question is obvious. » Olveraeth's agreement and confirmation is in the ancient stars, twinkling in his thoughts. Kamornth's is more reluctant: gruff and semi-disdainful. « I do not see a thread in your rider's knot, » comments the much-older bronze... not that R'van is there to be seen. not that Kamornth is there to see it. « But it is no crime to listen, » is Olveraeth's comment, as his rider sidles up to R'van's couch, peering over and down to get a look at what he's doing. "Well," she says. « My rider is not interested in your lectures, » Vadevjiath replies. Diplomacy is for those less fixed in their convictions. « I am, which is likely more than you could say for some of your pupils, let alone their lifemates. » Meanwhile, R'van is quite absorbed in his own work--his not-so-secret side project, full of Smith notes and diagrams--when Quinlys comes to hang over his shoulder. He only looks up when she speaks, blinking at her for a moment in confusion. Vadevjiath must explain some piece of the disagreement then, because the rider's expression smoothes into something too neutral. "Weyrlingmaster?" « You won't remember, » points out Kamornth. « You'll forget. » Kamornth forgets; he knows it. « Will you make your rider remember for you, when he is not interested? » Olveraeth stays out of this, although perhaps that low, dark wave of motion is akin to warning; we do not judge others, young Vadevjiath. "Is that bronze of yours truly interested in B'ren's lecture, R'van?" One of Quinlys' hands goes to her hip, blue eyes studying the weyrling. « I will practice it until it's habit, not memory, » Vadevjiath replies. « Much as we remember how to fly. » Or as Kamornth and Olveraeth remember; Vadevjiath still only half-knows. But he's practicing. The warning isn't so much unheard as perhaps unheeded in his willfulness. At least he mostly tempers his passion into reasoned discourse, at least for now. R'van, for his part, regards Quinlys with his mouth pulling into a slow frown. "Vadevjiath," he names the dragon deliberately, "is quite interested, as he tells me. Annoyed, too, that his interest isn't better received, but." The rider's shoulders lift in a faint shrug, as if to ask, 'what can you do?' « Practice theory, » says Kamornth, dismissively. « There is no thread for you to fly. » The lecture, around them, continues... but at least no one is sending Vadevjiath away. "Olveraeth doesn't mind him listening in," says Quinlys, evenly. "Kamornth and B'ren are older; they're not much impressed, but they won't make him leave as long as I let him stay. You could listen in too, if you wanted." « Even humans will forget what they don't use, » comes Vadevjiath's rebuttal; he's determined more than optimistic. « Though, I suppose they have their notes, if they need them--but I don't imagine anyone would begrudge my using theirs, if it came to that. » For R'van, Quinlys' words earn a dryly amused smile, just for a moment. "Please, let him stay. I'd hate for you to be the weyrlingmaster who incites mutiny," he tells her, with that touch of fond amusement-exasperation that creeps in sometimes where Vadevjiath's personality is concerned. But for the latter-- that earns a lift of his brows and some genuine surprise. "Why would you want that, weyrlingmaster?" Kamornth shares an image of Vadevjiath attempting to read notes purloined off of some poor weyrling; he scoffs at the idea. Olveraeth, however, seems only mildly amused. « Perhaps you and your rider might peruse them together, » he decides. "I'm not going to force him out, shells no," says Quinlys, with a laugh and a smug shake of her head, hair bouncing over her shoulders. "And I didn't say I wanted that, only that you-- and any other weyrling-- would be welcome to. If I wanted you there, you would be." The image doesn't seem to amuse Vadevjiath at all, and it's only Olveraeth's amusement that keeps the young bronze from anger--outright anger, at least; he still simmers with it below the surface of otherwise calm waters. « Perhaps when we are finished with our smithing notes for the evening, » Vadevjiath answers stiffly instead. R'van is more willing to entertain these alternatives than the bronze, if the look he's currently giving Quinlys is any basis. "Correct me if I misapprehend," he says then, consideringly, "those of us non-leaders who are so inclined to drag ourselves up by our bootstraps, may join the chosen few for lectures at will? Kamornth's displeasure excepted?" "You may choose to listen," stresses Quinlys, the twitch of her expression-- so smug, so very, very smug-- obvious, "to lectures held within the barracks. They're right there in the training cavern: it's not like I can stop anyone from sitting at the next table and keeping tabs. You may also convince your fellows to share their notes for other matters." Beat. "Until or unless a guest lecturer specifically sends you away, in any case. Yes. Why? Are you actually interested in something related to the Weyr, something that's not about your own projects?" « Be better than him, » Olveraeth advises Vadevjiath, on a channel that does not include Kamornth. « Do not rise to the bait. » "But not to answer?" R'van certainly knows of Vadevjiath's inciting action, judging by the faint smirk his mouth pulls into by then. "Of course, it's quite obvious the criteria for being chosen in the first place--an appalling inability to actually lead--but if you expect the rest of us to be more motivated in turn by slight or spite..." « Does that include your rider's bait? » Vadevjiath says almost in time with his rider. « He should definitely not rise to her bait, » is Olveraeth's prompt answer, affection for his rider too evident for it to be criticism of her; perhaps just knowing resignation. « She's his superior, just as Kamornth and I are yours. It won't get him far. » "Oh?" Quinlys' smugness turns smugger still. "Is that how you see it. It certainly proves our concerns about you; you're definitely not someone who should lead. I have no expectations of the rest of you. I leave the option open; honestly, I don't give a fuck. Keep Vadevjiath from interrupting, and he can listen to anything he likes." It has an air of finality about it, though she doesn't-- yet-- turn to leave. « Considering she already seems to think he won't get far--, » Vadevjiath notes, not quite disdainful but certainly not thinking much of that assessment of Quinlys. R'van, for his part, only nods to Quinlys' latter words, accepting of that. "I'll make sure he's aware of that stipulation," he tells her then, mildly, though surely Vadevjiath already is. "Good," says Quinlys, cheerfully enough. "Then we understand each other." And with that, she turns upon her heels to head back to the lecture in process. « Prove her wrong, » suggests Olveraeth. « She's not unwilling to change her opinion. » |
Comments
Roz (10:17, 21 May 2015 (EDT)) said...
I want to see the mutiny. Weyrlings going nuts.
Well.... more than they already are.
Edyis (14:21, 21 May 2015 (EDT)) said...
Man Quinlys is getting a work out.
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