Logs:Menial Labor is not a reward
| |
|---|
| RL Date: 29 April, 2015 |
| Who: Edyis, R'van, K'zin, Telavi |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: K'zin learns that some weyrlings, actually prefer studying over menial labor. |
| Where: Weyrling Training Cavern, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: D 9M 37T I10, autumn afternoon |
| Mentions: Yesia/Mentions, Laine/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Feel free to edit, correct, and alter away! |
    |
>---< Weyrling Training Cavern, High Reaches Weyr(#392RJLs) >----------------<
All the furniture here has been pushed to one side of the room to allow a
large pathway opposite: room enough to let weyrling dragons pass from the
bowl's archway to the cavernous barracks at the back. None of the
furniture matches, either: it varies from big cushioned, claw-footed
chairs to those of plain wood, while the most seating is at the two stone
tables ringed by low and equally hard stone benches. Without the
tapestries that decorate many of the Weyr's other interior spaces, the
room always echoes with noise, no matter how few are there.
What it does have, however, are several colorful murals: on one wall, a
detailed diagram of a dragon's anatomy; opposite, next to a creaky wooden
door, a number of painted and labeled wing formations. Near the entrance
is a large-scale version of the Weyr's badge, while the back wall, by the
barracks, features a detailed map of the continent. The latter area's also
home to one big, beat-up couch, black or maybe blue -- the thing's so old
and filthy it's hard to tell, though it's certainly comfortable.
+views available It's late in the afternoon; Edyis seated alone at a table pouring over a pile of notes from the day's lectures. She seems completely oblivious to the other weyrlings around for the moment, utterly focused on her notes. Akluseth is to all appearances taking a nap curled up in a ray of sunshine. Occasional muscle twitches might suggest this is a state he will not maintain for long. Vadevjiath is awake, though only just so: he's a little stumbly, bleary-eyed and stretching as he wanders from his couch to the training room. R'van follows a pace behind, dodging around the bronze's dragging tail. "I'm just going to sit here," he tells the dragon, as he pulls up a chair with his own notes in hand. K'zin has been about today, mostly kept busy with one thing and another, helping here, cleaning there and so on. Rasavyth's oozy, charming presence is, as per usual, around, the aristocratic bronze settled in the bowl just outside the training cavern. The newest AWLM left around lunchtime and is just now returning with a wheelbarrow filled with... blocks? Blocks of clay. "Mind giving me a hand unloading?" is asked of the nearest weyrlings when he stops. Lucky Edyis and R'van! Ink-dark eyes lift when R'van sits down, the pencil that was defining the wing bones of one of her sketched diagrams stopping completely. Before she can even open her mouth, however, K'zin requires assistance. Her "Yes." is not an enthusiastic one, closing her notebooks and stacking them neatly before moving to help the AWLM, since it doesn't seem to be an optional request. Akluseth twitches in his Sunbeam. Lucky indeed. R'van looks up almost as soon as he's settled in place, eyeing K'zin with one lifted brow. He glances sideways at Edyis a beat later, and while she's quicker to agree, the bronze weyrling lingers where he is instead. "We're studying," he tells K'zin: not quite refusal, buthat kind of weyrlingmaster pulls them away from something so important as that? "Ah," makes the noise of 'wait-for-it' to R'van, holding up a finger, "but these," the finger indicates the blocks of clay. "Can get you out of studying for a while, once they're moved over there," where K'zin indicates the table off to one side that has a drop canvas spread across it. The bronzerider will even wheel the wheelbarrow closer to the table before gesturing to Edyis to help herself to a block, even as he does and moves to set it on the table. "Thank you, Edyis," is added to the brown weyrling, even. The rewards of willingness! Those thanks could have been R'van's, could still be. "Considering how little time I get to study, forgive me if I am less than enthused about the idea of losing that time as a reward." Edyis puffs a breath up at a stray strand of hair which has escaped her bandana. "However if you can talk Rasavyth into keeping Akluseth distracted while I study if he wakes up...That might make up for it?" She suggests with her sweetest smile. A snort answers K'zin's words, an aborted laugh when R'van realizes he's serious. Both brows go up this time. "That presupposes we'd prefer anything, even rudimentary manual labor, to studying. Which may as well be the case for some, I accept," he concedes that much on the heels of Edyis's words, his own tone matter-of-fact. "But I would have expected this--" he lifts his notes to indicate them "--to be the incentized activity, considering how much of our physical energy has to be reserved for our dragons." Clearly, K'zin is at something of a loss for a moment as he looks at the two study-"eager" weyrlings. He blinks at them a moment before his brow wrinkles and he looks at the blocks. "First of all," he swings his head a little toward Edyis to indicate this point is for her, "helping is what I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to be here for, and that extends to Rasavyth, so you don't need to bargain help out of me, just ask," it sounds so simple. "Secondly," R'van, his head shifts along with his eyes, "If those happen to be dragon anatomy notes than this is both incentive and study reward." Even if he's not getting help beyond Edyis', he's continuing with moving the blocks (roughly twenty if someone wants to count) onto the table. Her expression is dubious at best though her lips do twitch amused at Rafe's arguments. Helping with the clay, however, takes precedence over arguing the point since R'van is more adept she leaves that to him. A new respect in her brief glance at the former Smith. "How so?" R'van sounds genuinely curious about this, as he looks up to K'zin from his seated position. He waits, expectant, for that explanation. "Model. Dragons." K'zin tells R'van as if sharing an exciting not-so-secret. What Smith does not like making models? With K'zin's luck, it will probably be R'van, but that doesn't stop him from looking to Edyis, "It's even a bit artistic. Though it's really about practical application of the anatomy you've been learning. Everyone makes one. Then they're fired when you're finished and you get to keep it. Or break it. Or whatever," he doesn't seem to care. It's the doing that's the exciting part. "That sounds a little bit like a disaster waiting to happen." The former scribe muses as she finishes unloading the clay though there is a curious glance at it now. "How is constructing a miniature dragon supposed to help with anatomical understanding? I get that three dimensions give you a sense of balance of the thing, but wouldn't all the time we spend oiling tell us more? Considering you can feel the bone and muscle when you wash them?" It's a genuinely curious inquiry now. "They're not," notes for dragon anatomy, as it were; when R'van sets them down on the table, they look more like some of his old smith notes. But at least it does the trick: he's curious enough to reach for one of those bricks, pick it up. He holds it eye-level, squinting past it to Vadevjiath to size the dragon up. "Edyis," K'zin feigns surprise, "you didn't think we'd leave you with only one way to get practical experience with dragon anatomy, did you?" Then he grins. "It's another way. Plus," and he can't stress this enough, "cool clay dragon to take home with you!" He looks to R'van, "I made mine so you could detach different bits and put it back together. I always thought you could do something more complex with it with joints and all that, but..." Limited time, limited effort, young dragons, the whole weyrlinghood deal. "It would be cooler if I was certain it wouldn't get broken." She sighs, but with the clay moved she checks her hands to make sure none of the substance lingers, before going over to a basin to wash them anyway. "What were you studying then R'van?" She calls over her shoulder as she finishes up, drying her hands off. Of K'zin's, Rafe notes, "I'd be curious to see." Because the idea is apparently planted now, and he sets aside the clay itself to flip over his notes and pick up his pencil to sketch. Apparently they really are on their own when it comes to unloading. "My replacement," he tells Edyis, making it sound like a dirty word, "is arriving soon to pick up my research for the Hall. So I'm reviewing it again. One last time, as it were." "There are never any promises in life about things not getting broken. Bones, hearts, miniature clay dragons," K'zin tells Edyis with a half-smile. Life Lessons by K'zin. "I'll bring it down for you next time I'm up to my weyr," the full-fledged bronzerider tells the fledgling one, evidently no thought given to the guarantee of its safety. "There are some examples over--" He squints across the room and makes gesture to some obscure spot, "ones people didn't want to take with them." Not everyone is sentimental that way. He probably hears about what important things R'van was studying that he interrupted with his request for help, but makes no comment-- or can't because, "K'zin!" is shouted by one of the other weyrlings in the entry way to the bowl and duty calls. He answers with a quick nod to the other two and a jog bowl-wards. There is a scrunching of her nose for Rafe's explanation. "Is it standard procedure for the hall to claim research notes of an apprentice? I thought there was precedence for those sufficiently advanced in their craft to take it up again once the initial weyrlinghood period was over?" She frowns, "I could have that completely wrong though. Ever since I got stuck with Akluseth, my memory has been shot." Moving back over to her notebooks, opening up easily to the pages she was studying and making comparisons against notes that are distinctly older than those from the lecture though in the same handwriting. "No craft has any official policy in regard to riders taking up their crafts again," R'van answers, with the practiced air of someone who just might have studied this recently. "Some may have dabbled, but..." A shrug ensues. He drags his pencil idly over the page. He's no artist; already it's a little more engineering draft. There's even a scale. "And our work is for the hall, and they will continue the line of research I was working on regardless of whether I'm there to do it or not." "That would be the rational way of looking at it." She agrees when he mentions focus on other things. "There is always something to be occupied with," she agrees, though the unspoken but lingers. Flipping between notebooks, and rechecking before making a new notation and starting a new sketch on a fresh page. "Clay dragons, even if it's perfectly correct as far as anatomy, I've no idea how to balance it." But who ever expects this group to be rational? R'van doesn't agree to that exactly, continuing his idle drafting. "Well," he says then, finally. "I expect the first step is to figure out a decent model. I've no experience with sculpting clay myself, but metal..." He shrugs. "We'll see. I don't imagine they really expect much actual resemblence to a dragon out of this crowd, honestly." "I'm not particularly concerned with what they expect." She murmurs in reply, her pencil stopping as she looks over at his work. "Are you?" She stops her sketching to look at his, curious. "How would you approach it with metal?" "I'm not a maker of that sort by specialization, but..." He's still thinking on it, tapping his pencil against the table. "The neck will be the difficult part, making sure that doesn't unbalance it. If we put enough weight to the tail and hindquarters, though--though that could throw off the scale so. Hm. We'll see how it feels after the first modeling." Cool air and a clipped comment herald Telavi's arrival, her blonde hair windblown despite its braid, her cheeks pink with the wind; she's walking backwards, still telling someone-or-other to do something-or-other, not paying the most attention in the world to just where she's going. "Wind the tail against the body, so it isn't fragile? but part of the greater whole?" the end of her pencil tapping against her bandana. "If seen wood crafters sculpt in a rock or other features for support before, My brother used to bring home some of the pieces he worked on. I don't know anything about materials or how they are different though." Actively interested in the project now, though movement of Telavi draws dark eyes upward to track the movement of the assistant weyrlingmaster. It's the clippedness of Telavi's voice that draws R'van's interest, the bronzerider slanting a look back at her: eavesdropping just a little. "Myself, either," he admits to Edyis a beat later. "So we'll see just how good this turns out. Speaking of tails, you may wish to watch your step." The last is added to Telavi: Vadevjiath has left his in the way of her path, where he's decided to lie down and rest. Nothing to hear here, move along-- minus something about a missing jacket that the outside-weyrling swears he put somewhere safe-- and Telavi pivots with a brisk, "Hmm?" that turns into a hop just in time before she stops. "Thank you. And look at you two, so industrious!" It's possible she might be facetious, but probable? Edyis's lips curl in a smile that probably seems genuine enough at the observation from the weyrling master, before seming to glance back down and making additional notes in the margins of her drawing. Pertaining to the smith's comments. Vadevjiath doesn't mean, forcing Telavi to pivot around him. "Something like that," R'van answers her then. "Considering one of your fellows already saw fit to interrupt it once today, we have to make up for lost time, I think." Tela hop-hop-hops backward and forward over Vadevjiath's tail, because she can, with the rhythm of a jump rope no less; provided that the little dragonet doesn't trip her up, then she's heading for where they're working, the better to lean and peek over Edyis' shoulder with the assurance of someone who gets to. "Interrupt? How horrible. I trust the flow of your work wasn't completely dammed." Or damned. That gets Vadevjiath's attention, and the bronze swishes his tail away from her. His personal space. Whether this gets in the way of her jumping and finally trips her... remains to be seen. "Redirected, more like," R'van tells Telavi. "For better or worse. But at least we--" meaning he "--didn't get pulled to unloading in the end." The horrors of manual labor. A glance at the table, would show the notebooks Edyis has neatly arrayed, all neatly dated and some considerably earlier than impression. The particular page she is working on has loose gesture drawings different ideas for how to pose the clay model. Letting Rafe do the talking. The movement caught Tela's toe, anyway, though she'd caught herself in turn without anything like surprise; now she reaches to try and curve up the corners of the pages prior to Edyis' current writing, to see what there might be to be seen. "That would have been tragic. The rest of the weyrlings would have had to write lyrics immortalizing your untimely fate." "Wouldn't it," says Rafe. His tone's dry as he looks over at Telavi and Edyis; Vadevjiath prowls back to curl up behind his rider's chair, protective--and nearly too big to do so. "I'd be terrified to see what they came up with. Can you imagine Laine? Yesia?" "Please be careful with those." Is Edyis's gentle request, watching the twitching hopping weyrling master with concern. You know the hopping jumping weyrlingmaster. The notes are all on dragonhealing. "Laine would probably do a limerick, and it would be fun and jaunty. Yesia, wouldn't bother or if she did it wouldn't be anything anyone wanted to hear. ." "Worry instead about who's going to portray you in the performance," Telavi suggests with meaning; she'd certainly dispute twitching, but then she can dispute all sorts of things. The dragonhealing notes meet with increasing interest; when her finger touches here and there-- carefully!-- it has less to do with inherent meaning and more for the private prospect of some secret code. Right after Edyis' comment, "Rafe? About Smithcraft." "Which seems to accurately describe most people's feelings toward her," R'van agrees regarding Yesia. There's a faint roll of his eyes, probably for the parties on both sides of those disputes. "Doesn't lend itself especially well to music, as these things go," he notes of the Smitchcraft, lifting one brow in answer to her query. Edyis shrugs, her attention back on her notes, When she's satisfied with the sketches, she turns to a fresh page and starts working on a more detailed drawing. Glancing over in Akluseth's direction now and then. "I didn't know you were so interested in dragon healing Telavi. What do you think, have I been paying attention during my lessons." She queries with a lift of a brow somehow deeply amused by the assistant weyrlingmaster's scrutiny of her notes. Glancing over to Rafe before pushing the sketch over. "What do you think of something like this?" Akluseth coiled up much how he often sleeps. Mostly solid connecting peices. "I recollect one tune that employed anvils," Telavi's quick to say, momentarily wistful, but she's just as quick to move on-- literally, as well, when she leaves Edyis' book be. Not that she straightens, though she spares, "Naturally," for Edyis herself; instead, now, gazing contemplatively at the once-apprentice, "When there were... episodes between apprentices," she gestures significantly, "people not getting along and all, what did they do? Did they just leave them be? Pick someone and use them for testing acid?" It's Telavi's question that earns an answer first, though R'van's eyes are skimming over Edyis's sketch as he takes it. "Mostly left us to sort ourselves out, unless it turned physical," he notes with a roll of his shoulders. "There was gossip, bullying, every bit of pettiness you'd expect among children; but mostly you either kept your head down or gave it back best you can. --I think," and that turns the subject back to the sketch that he returns to Edyis. "That that might work well. It could certainly be more useful than a flimsy, top-heavy version. Make a paperweight of it if nothing else, if they're goign to fire them for us." Edyis nods, taking the sketch back and refining it further. "Thank you for the help Rafe." She smiles, "Might not turn out too bad." Telavi's answer earns a searching look of the woman but mostly the scribe continues sketching. Telavi listens with evident attention, that 'pettiness' causing an ambiguous tug to her mouth along the way, though she also appears to let the actual discussion of actual clay assignments slide on by. Returning fluidly to her topic of choice, she inquires of the one, "Did it work? Would you recommend it?" Of the other, "What about you, Edyis? What do you think of the Smith way?" Outside, there's the now-familiar thump of an older dragon-- Solith?-- bringing over a fresh kill for the weyrling dragons' repast. "Well, everyone survived," answers R'van after a moment. "And with only the usual amount of mental scarring and stunted emotional growth." High praise indeed. He's distracted, though, when Vadevjiath hears that thump: the bronze is on the move again, stalking toward the sound of a meal he's about to claim. Rafe makes short work of gathering up his own things, tucking them under his arm. "Excuse us," he tells the pair then, as he follows his dragon out. Edyis dark brows lift only slightly at the question. "Should I have an opinion one way or another on it?" The sketchbook closes and she sucks a breath as Akluseth stirs as though willing him back to sleep. "Lovely." It is Solith out there, and Telavi does excuse him by way of turning her attention from him and to Edyis, wholly to Edyis; her gaze is both limpid and blue. Gently, "I did ask you." "Yes, you did." Edyis exhales softly then. "I would rather not be punished over a difference of opinion that should simply be left unvoiced." She chuckles a little at the last, but it fades quickly. "Seems like no matter what answer you give in the end you wind up in the dirt. If you try keeping your head down it doesn't work and if you stand out the hammer comes down. So in the end there is no answer. At least none that I see." She exhales carefully, "But that's just an opinion, and one you directly asked for, not volunteered out of turn." "I don't know that I follow," Telavi murmurs. "Do you mean, you don't want to risk my punishing you for disagreeing with R-- R'van? Or do you mean that you wouldn't want to be punished for disagreeing with an... equal... when you should have bitten your tongue?" "I mean that I don't want to voice my opinions at all," Edyis answers softly. "What does it matter what I think of the smithcraft method of dealing with disagreements." "That's unfortunate. Surely you don't think I'd hand you over to the Smiths to pay the price?" Telavi checks. "You know, for doubting their no doubt time-honored way of life." "Yes well, it would seem doubting time-honored traditions can cause unnecessary friction. Do you mind putting me at ease and explaining what on Pern you expected to find in my dragon healing notes?" Her guard still up. Akluseth stirs fully, pulling to his feet and stretching with a yawn. Padding over. "I'm trying to keep my head down and not inadvertently make people start yelling." She explains at last as her lifemate headbutts her for attention. Telavi keeps looking at her; then she says, with a smile, "I didn't exactly know what they were until I looked, remember? I'm interested in things that interest you." A beat later she explains, "We do try to minimize yelling. 'Inadvertent' yelling, too. It helps to be mindful of which traditions one is doubting, and when they're welcome. Now, for practice..." "Mm. True enough," Edyis returns with a smile. "If you tell me though I can point you to the juicy bits faster." Teasing a little perhaps. "What interests me right now is getting through this in one piece." "Perfect," and Telavi's smile is that much warmer and wider for Edyis, positively sunny. "What I'd like you to do.... is write about how to cope with someone who's super aggravating." Not to name names, says her sideways glance. "Ask people for ideas if you like, you aren't on your own." She lets that rest through a pause before continuing, "Advice, in other words. Five paragraphs should do it. This could help quite a few people, you know." "I thought I smelled a setup." She chuckles darkly, "Isn't it easier to say you did X write Y essay?" She exhales, "Context please?" "That's too simple," and there's a faint cloud to Telavi's smile. "It really can help people," she says earnestly. "Put thought into it, Edyis. Develop strategies. Context is advice and recommendations for people who deal with difficult people: how to get along, how to make things better, how to turn an adversary into an acquaintance or even-- nicer, really. How to cope with things better. If it helps you to define different types of people you find difficult, that's an option; just, people don't fit in holes quite as easily as scrolls. I'd like it within the sevenday, but if you can show me progress, you can have longer." So earnest. "Do you have any further questions? I've been ignoring Solith, and I really should get out there." Before little dragons tear each other up, accidentally, along with the carcass. Collecting her notebooks Edyis gives a grudging nod as an answer, heading into the barracks. Akluseth whines a little but after a look he follows grudgingly behind. |
Comments
Alida (20:18, 30 April 2015 (EDT)) said...
Nothing like following in your sensei's (only sometimes paranoid) footsteps, Ed! hahaha!
Leave A Comment