Logs:Skills of Shadow
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| RL Date: 3 June, 2013 |
| Who: K'zin, Jo |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: After sparring, K'zin makes a morally questionable request of Jo. She probes his motivations. |
| Where: Training Room in Questionably Painted Weyr (K'zin's), High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 19, Month 13, Turn 31 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Devaki/Mentions, Seani/Mentions, Iolene/Mentions, Barnabas/Mentions, Madilla/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Back-dated! Played via gdocs. |
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| K'zin's Training Room, Questionably Painted Weyr The big bubble of a cavern that matches the one on the other side of the shared hearth provides plenty of space now that the big bed has been cleared out of it. In the entry way, there's a set of shelves holding all variety of training equipment, many of smith-work to provide added resistance. The floor is mostly covered in a layer of matting, just enough to keep a person from hurting themselves on the stone when thrown to the floor. Suspended on one side of the room is a large punching bag that looks like a hand-me-down from somewhere, and certainly seeing a fair bit of use, as some spots show bloody knuckle-prints that can't yet be qualified as old. There's a little more than waist high set of parallel bars, though not longer than is useful for a single person, and a pull up bar installed high on one wall. On the other side of the room from the punching bag is something that looks a little like a totem pole, layers of cylindrical trunk stacked with arms of varying sizes sticking out from each layer. Each layer twists independently, and it looks like the arms can be taken off as desired; something to test and practice one's agility and ability to dodge.
Jo hardly turns down a good session to beat someone senseless. Well, she didn't really try to beat K'zin senseless, but she did at least make sure that he was getting acquainted with his floor more than he probably wanted. There's a slight sheen over her skin as she pats the towel over herself while K'zin speaks, having kept to silence and quiet instruction during the session. It's how she trains and teaches, after all. The question does have the convict rider arching a brow his way, only pausing briefly in her motions to give him that look. Then, in sharp amusement, "Where I come from, I do believe we call that breakin' and enterin'," she notes back first. Regarding that tone, "Why? Lookin' to steal somethin'? What is it?" She's making the assumption that there is something to be stolen - or rather, maybe she's hoping. K'zin's brown eyes follow the tape as it unwinds from his second hand. His manner, despite her directness in answer, is unruffled, "I suppose it would be considered that." As if it hadn't occurred to him, but a glance to the convict out of the corner of his eyes hints that he knows exactly what he's asking; he's a dummy, not an idiot. A (training) dummy who, today, found all of the spots on the mats that need a little tweaking. Surely, he will be respectably sore for days. "Not so much steal," The bronzer begins with furrowed brow, "More like, look at and put back like I was never there." He reaches up a hand to push through his sweat-swept hair. "I've still to sort out exactly what I'm up against. Can't ask too many questions at once." But obviously he's being fairly candid with Jo, by comparison. "But... I've seen the construction of locks in Smithing. I've seen the tools to manipulate them. I could make them, but I didn't take the advanced class on locksmithing. There are books, but I thought... maybe you or someone you knew who could be trusted not to say anything-" Since Jo has a guy for everything, it seems, "-might have more hands-on experience and would teach me? In trade, I'm sure, for something else." For the most part, Jo stays quiet and listens to K'zin as he explains, chin lifting at something said before she looks on ahead of them for a moment. "So this is an information hunt?" she asks now, darting a look towards the bronze weyrling. "What exactly are ya trying to find out?" She's interested for sure, for something to catch another's eye enough to break and enter another place is of interest to someone like her. When he mentions that she may know someone, "Yeah, I do," she states that smoothly. "I know someone from the lower caverns that likes that sort of thing. Yer takin' a whole lotta risk for not knickin' anythin', though." She eyes K'zin for that, perhaps certain that there's more to this than what he's letting on. K'zin flexes his hands, staring at them as Jo asks the hard questions. But then, there's a inner struggle visible in his expression that whispers that asking this, pursuing this, that none of this is easy for him. K'zin turns and then leans against the wall, his hands tucking behind him, eyes on the mat for a moment before he levels a very sober look at the bluerider. "Jo, if you were Weyrleader, would you keep secrets from your Weyr?" It's a question, not an answer, but the way his gaze measures the brunette speaks to the line of questioning helping him make some tough decisions. Jo is watching K'zin closely and she's not hiding that fact. She watches whatever's visible on his face, her own carefully composed despite all the exertions put on previous. When the question comes, it's unexpected. It certain wasn't the direction Jo was expecting things to go, and so at first, the question gets a blink. Perhaps feeling like she's being put on the floor, "Would you?" she seems compelled to direct the question back on him first. There's a lengthy pause after it, her gaze having never left his as she finally answers for herself. "It depends on the secret, darlin'. Not everythin's on a need-to-know basis. Some folks I'd trust with everything. To keep everythin'. Everyone else only needs to know what pertains to them." Shrugging, "It keeps folks from fuckin' up any plans I've got for problems I would want to solve myself, or with certain others," she explains. "Some might think gettin' involved would help, when it would only make things worse. Discretion avoids that. Perhaps it's for protection of the Weyr, too." Despite the question being turned back on himself, K'zin waits for an answer. Only after Jo's said her piece do his shoulders relax a little and there's an agreeing inclination of his head, "As you say, depends on the secret. But what if you weren't Weyrleader anymore. And someone asks you about something that happened turns in the past, do you still keep the secrets? Or tell that person that it's not for people to know? When it involves an unsolved murder that took place in the Weyr?" Surely Jo can, by now, put together that K'zin is talking about K'del, and the murder of Seani. "If you didn't want people asking questions, wouldn't you find a way to make it solved? Or something? Anything to keep people from asking questions? Wouldn't you find a way to not just sharding-well say to people 'there are secrets and people can't know them'?" His fists clench abruptly and he's pushing off the wall and heading for the punching bag. "Depends," Jo echoes again with a light shrug as she leans back. "Is the secret the sort that would come bite me in the ass later on, whether I'm still Weyrleader or not? Sometimes keepin' secrets ain' got nothin' to do with the Weyr," she states with some amusement. "Sometimes it's mere self-preservation." Beat. "Murder." That word is like a heavy stone, dropping to the surface of the lake. "Ya wanna investigate an old murder. Somethin' involvin' K'del, even." Yeah, she guessed, lips quirking at the thought. She's duly entertained as K'zin keeps talking, and when he heads for the punching bag, "Lemme take a stab," she states, getting to her feet and heading for the punching bag as well. Her words could also be for what she says next. "K'del and ya got into it. Ya wanna know somethin' and he shut'cha down. Yer mad about it." An understatement. "So now yer contemplatin' breakin' into the records room to steal the information ya wanna know yerself?" Flanking him now, "One would ask, then, why ya wanna know so badly? Is this information ya'll be usin'?" Against the man, perhaps could be heard without voice. K'zin stops just shy of the bag, twisting to give her an intense look, "Self-preservation. That's part of what concerns me." He turns to the bag and swings a wide hook barefisted to hit hard, grunting as the impact is made. Followed by a quick succession of swings. He has to get it out, it seems, before he can turn to look at the convict. He wasn't really endeavoring to hide things once he started getting into the specifics. His jaw is set, lips tight. "I asked questions. He told me there are things people shouldn't know. Only I wasn't asking anything that people shouldn't know. I was asking some things that some people might not care to know, but nothing that should be verboten to someone in the Weyr who wants to know. It's like..." He takes a breath, hesitates, and then gives the thought rattling through his head to the world, "It's like someone wants it to never be solved. Never be resolved. Whether it's because it's the murderer covering his or her ass, or because it's somehow good politics to be able to accuse a Lord Holder of being a murderer because he was the main suspect and the matter was never resolved, or whatever else..." Frustration has him trailing off and he turns back to the bag. "It's not right," after another punch then turning back to Jo. "Do you recognizes 'Reaches these days? I used to think I knew it. But this-- all of this is--" He doesn't even have a word for what this is. Nothing good, his face and tone say together. Even though Jo's at the bag with him, she's not punching it. She does move over towards it and holds it in place when K'zin starts to go in hard on it, the impacts only jerking her back a little. "And this murder....bothers ya?" she asks as he explain, her head to the side so that she can see him. "Ya know this new Lord? What he's about? Who he was before he became a Lord?" Those questions seem less to do with K'zin's need to know about the murder, but she does get back on track with, "Whatever the case. Ya shouldn' be so surprised that he didn' answer it. Ya think that the answers are in the records room, though." She thinks about that for a moment before giving K'zin a non-committal look and says, "Maybe. Maybe not. Doesn' hurt to go actively check it out yerself. Ya'll need tools, and I can get them for ya on loan. Won' cost ya a piece unless ya get caught, or lose'em." The last - his question on the Reaches and its current state - has her silent for a moment to consider. "Recognize? I'll ask ya this, then," the woman turns on him, not answering right away. "What do you want the Reaches to be, if you and that bronze of yers were in charge? If one of the weyrlings approached ya askin' about past murders, how would'ja respond? Full disclosure? Is it based on the person, on trust? How do ya make the Reaches recognizable again, as ya said?" Her tone, completely neutral and curious, the questions probing into the young man. "Murder bothers me. Cold-blooded murder bothers me. The fact that I have to assume that's what it was because no one's talking about it and no one ever got any answers bothers me. Doesn't it you? That however many turns go by and no one's ever gotten an answer? Not even after a second former exile woman gets murdered?" Iolene. "And her killer conveniently kills himself? Didn't any of that rub anyone oddly? What kind of crazy place to we live in that everyone goes on like none of that's a big deal, especially when the prime suspect in the murder is confirmed as Lord of High Reaches." K'zin's passion flared as he spoke but it tempers down to a frustrated sigh. "I don't know Lord Devaki. I've never met him. I know that we're going to have a lean winter because of how poor our relations are with his Hold and others. I know that Hold relations matter. And I know that too many 'Reachians still think of him as a murderer. Does that encourage good relations?" Obviously, K'zin doesn't think so. There's a quick succession of nods for Jo's words of the technical necessities. "I might be able to find them not restricted at Harper Hall, I'm trying that too, but... just in case. I'd understand if there'd been a logical reason for why I shouldn't know whatever's in those files," Like that there's a murderer on the loose and he's a know-it-all-teenager. "Different than this. That's all I know. I don't want people to know hunger under the care of the Weyr. That much I know. The rest? I'm still looking for all kinds of answers, Jo." His expression is so open and honest that there can be no doubt that he's giving her the whole Faranth's honest truth. That K'zin asks about murder and it bothering her? Jo just stares at the weyrling. No answer really comes right away from her lips. She looks away then as she takes to studying the room he's put together - a room she's already studied before - but she suddenly does ask him, "Ya were born here, K'zin? Or did'ja just grow up here in the bounty of the Weyr?" Perhaps the question has no relevance to cold-blooded murders and prime suspects. Perhaps it's noticed that this bluerider doesn't answer his question on murder bothering her. Instead, she directs her next on Hold relations. "Some seem to think poor relations are due to our current actin' Weyrleaders," she notes, moreso than the murder. "Ya don' think highly of this Lord Devaki cuz he's a murderer?" she asks now, staring at him in guarded askance. "What if he had reason, provided that he is a murderer? Things are never just black and white, darlin'." Perhaps thinking this topic was going into dangerous territory, she steers it left. "Different than this," she echoes musingly. "Maybe." It's non-committal at most, from her. If Jo wants to volunteer the details of her convict days, K'zin likely wouldn't stop her, but until such time as she's feeling particularly sharing, the bronzerider is ignorant of the implications of what he's asking the bluerider. "I grew up here." K'zin answers after a breath, "When the meteor hit, my parents moved all of us to the Weyr to help with rebuilding the place. I apprenticed here. My family left." These things are related dryly, simply, like bullet points on a list. There's obviously more that he does not say, but now might not be the moment. "I don't have feelings on Lord Devaki one way or another. I don't know enough yet. I've never met him. I just know people say he might be a murderer and that some think it doesn't matter whether he did it or not because they'll think ill of him anyway because he's an exile. Maybe that's true, that people will think ill anyway, but I'd rather there be no extra ammunition for people." He shakes his head, "Bones is a murderer and I'd count him among my favorite people." Maybe that makes things more clear, or just muddier. "A girl who, by everything I've heard so far, seemed to be a sweet, likable thing, who happened to be an exile, ends up smiling red from her throat. Maybe she gave someone a reason. But that's what I want to find out." Nodding on the answer about his origins, Jo is silent for a few moments before she states, "Ya count Bones among yer favorite people cuz he likely wouldn' do that again if given the choice," almost pointedly as she regards him. "His wasn' premeditated." As if there's a connection to that and everything else said, but she does tack on briskly, "Ya were told I was in the mines, but not why. It was murder, too." Nodding once, stiffly, "What put me away wasn' my fault. The second one was." And therein lies part of the source of that dark glint in her gaze, never to the forefront but always lingering should one study her close enough - and beyond all the flirtations and innuendos. Chin lifting as she steps away, "Sometimes ya do what ya gotta," she states, as if from experience. "Not sayin' Devaki really was involved in that girl's murder. Maybe he was just at the wrong place, wrong time like I was that first time and folks thought him the likely suspect. Maybe he had no other choice like the second time. Is it that important to ya to try'n solve somethin' that happened several turns ago? If that's yer aim?" She's looking hard at him now, murder being the sort of topic that takes away her good mood. "I'd imagine, the only folks that really know the real details of what went down with that girl is her and the one that held the knife. All ya'll get is hearsay, unless ya go to the source that seems the closest to this, and that's High Reaches new exile Lord. Ya think he'll be so forthcomin' with the truth to a weyrlin'?" The last, likely rhetorical, but she's putting it out there anyway. "I count Bones among my favorite people because he's Bones." And who can argue with that unassailable logic? K'zin shakes his head, but then falls silent because there's Jo to consider. His eyes flick to the brunette, "What happened?" He asks, but it's a request, no sign that he really expects her to answer if she's not of a mind to. Then, quietly as he moves back toward the door, the shelves to finish putting away the tape as he talks, "Maybe the answer is that there is no justice to be had. Life's not black and white," At least he knows that much, "But right now, does anyone know if that's the case? They just gave up, Jo. When they couldn't find Devaki, they just gave up." There's a deep breath then, "Jo, I'm telling you this because I trust you." And the tone of his voice implies that he hopes, truly, that his trust is not misplaced, "I can't say who, because 'who' trusts me, the source is indisputable. Devaki isn't the killer. Couldn't have been. Which means someone else is. Which means someone else knows something." A pause, "And no, I'm not going to march up to Lord Devaki and ask him about if he had a part in it. I'm not the brightest glow in the basket, maybe, but I'm not as dull as some others." Others that shall remain nameless but might be in his weyrling class. The snort on Bones is light, and Jo's shaking her head and answering on what had happened to her, "Long story. I was like you, once, and then I ended up at the wrong place and time. Paid for it and got locked up. I wasn' near as awesome back then like I am now." Clearly. "Maybe, one day, I'll tell ya about it when I'm bored enough." It's far more likely to be more reason than that, but the convict rider is being so glib about it all - as if she's retelling a tale of her childhood than reminiscing about getting locked up. She watches K'zin as he moves about, sticking to the punching bag as he rationalizes the murder topic at hand, saying nothing right away. "Maybe they gave up on hide, K'zin," she points out with a shrug. But then he goes on about trust and the woman states blithely as she looks away from him, "So Devaki didn' do it. Ya named yerself the one that's gonna find out who did, ehh?" Brows furrow at him when she does look at him, nodding firmly with her arms coming to a fold as she adds, "If ya must, darlin'. I suppose we all gotta spend our time somehow with there bein' no Thread in the skies to kill us." Seems like, resolutely, her questioning is at an end. It's more than likely hard to gauge what she thinks of it all, the woman composed and non-chalant as always to most, but she does briskly ask, "How soon do ya need the tools?" Jo's story is listened to with an intent expression, though he's not looking at her. He reaches for a clean towel off the shelf. He offers nothing but a simple nod to answer the self-appointment. "Sooner is better. I suspect I'll need some practice before I get to trying the real thing. I'll try not to keep them away from you for too long." K'zin starts to make move to the main room then, "Drink?" He offers as he goes. |
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