Logs:Silver Threads.
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| RL Date: 13 April, 2013 |
| Who: Telavi, E'sren |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Telavi and E'sren, two new silver thread weyrlings, discuss the meaning of that and of other things. |
| Where: Lake shore, HRW |
| When: Day 2, Month 7, Turn 31 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Sabella/Mentions |
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| Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr The rest of the bowl may be barren, grass barely surviving at best, but here by the lake, it's brilliantly green in the warmer months: thickening and thriving in the silty, boulder-dotted soil just before it transitions to soft sand and thence to the cool, clear water itself. A large freshwater lake fed by a low waterfall, it not only provides warm-weather bathing space for humans and dragons, but has one end fenced off as a watering hole for the livestock in the feeding grounds. The water there is often muddier than the rest of the clear lake, whose shallows drop off abruptly several yards out into deep water, and whose edge undulates against the coarse-hewn bowl wall: here close enough to just be bramble-covered rocks, there far enough away that a narrow land bridge divides the main lake from a smallish pond. Between are several rocky outcroppings that form excellent makeshift diving points, though only one -- across the bridge -- has a set of narrow, slippery, quite possibly tempting stairs. Warm sunshine and cloudless skies make for a beautiful day and pleasantly warm evening. A breeze tempers the heat with no humidity lingering in the air.
E'sren would be the other person on the blanket, legs stretched out with boots off to one side to avoid getting dirt where it shouldn't be, to keep the books and pages safe from more than just water. He cradles the spine of a book in one hand and reads, a pasttime he's been known for in the past few months. Telavi's question rouses him to look up, at first at her then at the water and those in it. "Which part of this are you talking about?" he and his puzzled brow want to know. "The part where it isn't cold nasty winter where it's really, really nice to be inside with an excuse to huddle up by the fireplace, but instead is amazing wonderful warm splash time." Tela hasn't generally been an out-and-out complainer when summoned by Sabs to study sessions, mostly just joking around here and there, and even now, it's more wistful with a side of 'what did I get myself into' than anything. Of course, her green isn't sunning out of solidarity, no, she and her fragile wings are right in the thick of things. For variety, the girl's glance drifts to her, and then to the trader wagon off over there. "Oh, you mean this instead of that?" E'sren jerks his chin in the direction of those in the water who get to, or are choosing to, play instead of study. Ahruth is sitting with perfect dragon posture a little ways away, his wings tilted up and back for the sun, his head tilts to watch the people in the lake but thus far he has been disengaged. Noticing her glance to the wagon, his former home in fact, he takes a breath and closes the book. "What about you?" It's the sound of the book, closing, that has Tela look back with the beginnings of a rather pleased smile, if one that's not reflected in her more ambivalent words. "I don't know. I don't know why they picked me, really, except maybe you two rubbed off? Not that I haven't studied, not that I didn't up my history," horrible horrible history, "but still. I hope it isn't something where they expect me to 'rise to the occasion' and 'fulfill my potential'." She makes a dramatic face, but still: she's heard that one before. E'sren meets this concern or airing or whatever it might be called with a serious, dark attention. Serious because it's important, dark because his eyes. This is an answer that requires some thought first. "Well, lemme ask you this. Why wouldn't you want to rise to the occasion, and fulfill your potential? Like why wouldn't you want to be the best, most amazing, most awesome person you can be? You're still you, right? I mean you're obviously already in the right place, now just wow the pants off of 'em." His words heighten rather than lessen the ambivalence in Tela's lighter, ever-changeable eyes. Not that her mouth doesn't purse with humor at one point, but still, "I feel like I should say first, 'I realize that this is an honor and an opportunity and I don't have to name names, do I? for who wanted it a lot more than I do.' But then I have to say, E'sren, that it sounds like you're linking best-amazing-awesome up with this pretty tightly, and I don't know if I..." In the end, she closes it off with, "what I think of that." For better or worse, E'sren is an honest person. Anyone who's met his mother so far knows exactly where he got it from. All of Telavi's doubts and opinions are allowed, he would never interrupt, but when she's done he shrugs and sits up a little more, coming out of the leaning sprawl he adopted for reading, as if this new position will also convey that he is definitely taking this seriously. "Well first no, you don't have to name names because yeah, I wanted it really bad. I still do. And if this is you second-guessing yourself or them, I'd say maybe that you don't have the right to decide who thinks you're worthy or not. If they do, they do." He takes a break here to give her a long look. "What has you thinking about this?" Questions are often better than assumptions. "That's not what I meant," Tela says of his wanting, though her nod recognizes it all the same. "I'm also not saying that I think I should have the right to decide who gets to think I'm worthy. Not like I could stop anyone, right? People think what they think." She studies E'sren openly, indecisively, sliding her ankles towards her so she can lean one knee comfortably down to the blanket, the other raised between them. "What you said made me think about it some more. It sounds like you're saying that doing this, or doing it well or whatever, would make me better and more awesome than doing other things would. That this is the one true path to awesomeness. Maybe that's not what you meant," and she lifts her brows in question. "I don't think it's the one true path to awesomeness, but I think that if you're already on the path, and someone comes along to tell you you're doing a good job walking that path and they give you some better walking shoes or a horse or something, you know you're doing something right. I guess for me it's validation, and confirmation, and it's a challenge. I dunno. I think you're a dragonrider now. If someone's like hey, be a better dragonrider, and gives you a tool or a push up in that direction, it's good. I mean yeah, it's better to be doing this than to be trying to be like a Journeyman Harper or something. Maybe I'm not wording this right," he adds uncertainly, a furrow forming between his eyebrows. Now that fills Telavi's eyes with laughter, and she even gets one of those great big smiles as he goes on, lasting full-fledged for a moment before gradually it begins to drift into thought. "That sounds a whole lot more like something I can deal with. You're saying it's better for one of us to try to do this than to be a journeyman harper, because we're not journeymen harpers, right? Because if we were, being a good journeyman harper would be, well, good. Better, even." She hasn't dropped her knee down, but she does lean forward against it, hands laced loosely at its peak. "I'm glad, because before," here she shrugs slightly, forgive her? "it sounded kind of snotty. Which isn't like you." She thinks. "Right. Exactly. I mean there's no reason why you shouldn't try to do other things if you want, but I think when you gain a new level in the place you are in life, it's right. And sorry. If I founded snotty?" E'sren grins, finding amusement in the word and maybe also in how his tongue finds it a little foreign. It isn't a word he's used to saying. "It wasn't my intention." Telavi's nod may be definite, but she's smiling all the same as he finishes, relaxing that much more. "So tell me, E'sren," because this may not be on topic when it comes to their studies, but surely argument has got to be good for something, right? "What do you think are other 'good' ways of being a dragonrider? Or maybe somebody who's also a dragonrider, since we don't have Thread raining down on us right this minute?" She was still so little during the last comet Fall, she can say that with just the daring, easily-shared naughtiness that comes from knowing how older folk might disapprove. E'sren, not really being 'older folk', but being older and perhaps a little more aware of the comet and stuff, pauses to reflect tensely on that memory. But he isn't one to dwell too much on the past, at least not in the company of others in the present, so he puts on another smile and shrugs. "I can really only give my own opinion, and I can only try to keep it snot-free. But, uh... I guess a lot of the same applies to being a good dragonrider as it does to being a good person. Be willing to do the hard thing even if it isn't the thing you want to do, be willing to go the extra mile for someone else. I dunno, Tela, I mean I'm kind of new at this too," he finishes with gentle, teasing grin. Just in case she forgot, Ahruth isn't any older than Solith, even if he might be older than her. "Don't worry, I'm not holding you up as an expert," Tela assures, but she's still sitting forward that little bit more, intent, the way she had ever since that pause of his. "But I am interested, in what people think." Ever since before he'd put on that smile. "How old were you when it stopped, anyway? What was that even like? I've only heard stories," and his could be another one. "Yeah I know, don't worry about me worrying. I wish I had all the answers, even if that's not necessarily what you're looking for when you ask. I guess then, that is what I think, all that stuff I said." He's still keeping the same position, sitting up but propped up by his arms, slanted some with his legs off the blanket. Her question regarding the last time Pern saw Thread puts him into another one of those odd, pensive pauses. He frowns down at his shoes and starts slowly. "I was... nine? I think? Eight or nine, at least when the comet came. It was scary. I don't remember a lot about it, I think I made myself forget, but I remember we were inside. And everyone was really worried." By now, Telavi's pensive herself as she listens, and can't help but look back at that wagon before returning her attention again to him, thoughtful eyes above linked hands and below that silly cap with the ribbon flowers she'd added just the other sevenday. "Do you remember, did people think it would keep falling and falling? I hope the beasts were... okay." There's no 'Don't worry about me worrying about your worrying about me worrying' anywhere in sight. "Yeah, they were. We love our animals a lot, and my uncle, who we were staying with, they've had their holding for a really long time now. Since back when it fell regularly, so everything has the stone and metal on the roof. Even the barn. So no organic anything to eat through." A chilling idea, and one E'sren looks immediately apologetic for. "Sorry. Yeah, um. It was all fine, but it was scary. I'm glad you don't remember anything." Telavi's young enough that she looks less chilled and more intrigued by the idea of it all, though she does give a shiver for effect. "Well, I'm glad you made it," she tells him decisively before unfolding her legs to stand. "In fact, why don't I wander over and say hello, I haven't yet. Don't worry, I won't bring it up." Though she will give the wagon a discreet looking over for char marks or anything else exciting... in the unlikely event of their not having been painted over in the very many Turns since Fall, but when does it ever hurt to look? "Thanks. I'm pretty glad too," E'sren replies, a little wry, but still as kind as he always is. "Oh sure, Seamus is probably over there right now, you'll like him. Ask him about the purple pants." The way he advises this is with a grin, obviously purple pants are something of an inside joke. When Telavi wanders over, she will find Seamus, a young man about twenty-two who wears a white button-up under a black vest, and a woman with dark features standing there next to him. The two are conversing amiably until the greenrider comes up, and then they both turn to attend to a potential customer and if not that, a potential new friend. |
Comments
Azaylia (Dragonshy (talk)) left a comment on Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:01:01 GMT.
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One who wanted it so badly paired with another who was thrust into the program. I enjoy the counterbalance of the scene, of the way they think and feel about the silver threads. I also really enjoyed E'sren telling what it was like to be young during the fall-- but old enough to remember bits and pieces. c:
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