Logs:X'vin's Methods
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| RL Date: 10 October, 2015 |
| Who: Dee, X'vin |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: While shadowing Flint Wing, Dee picks X'vin's brain about his methods and ideas for the future of Fort. |
| Where: A tavern in Ruatha region |
| When: Day 18, Month 13, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: E'dre/Mentions, Edric/Mentions, Erinta/Mentions, Giarnon/Mentions, Hattie/Mentions, Lilah/Mentions |
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| The type of place you end up when someone suggests a tavern says quite a lot about the company you keep. There are the frequent places -- seedier bars near Fort Sea, filled with loud sailors and swill, and there is always the southerly Lava Lounge too -- but if you ask a man like X'vin, the best kept secrets are the taverns that won't get you stabbed and robbed. This one, for example, is probably only a tavern by strict definition. Just west of the Hold on an ambling and well-maintained road, the tavern itself is comfortably and modestly appointed, catches lots of sunlight and is notably cleaner than taverns tend to be. The proprietor is a kind, rotund women in her middle-age and the minimal staff is quick, efficient, and extremely discreet, hovering around the edges of the few tables that are occupied. "Whatever you'd like, Dee," X'vin says when they've settled in, not ordering himself. Even so, the barman pulls down a bottle and two wine glasses, setting it down and beginning to pour one of them. The morning has been drills -- a chunk of the wing notably missing -- but the afternoon is lunch, and what comes after that remains to be seen, or even acknowledged in conversation. Dee is the sort of weyrling shadow that might exhaust the person saddled with her company. Her font of questions might seem endless, but when it comes time to do, she lapses into a silence that is near as exhausting given the intensity of her focus on observation and replication as needed and otherwise memorizing all she's being exposed to. Twelve days might as well seem a turn. Today has been little different, though she's tempered the timing of her questions to the wingleader, likely because of his previous cautions to her to not work too hard. Still, leading up to their arrival for lunch, it's obvious that Dee's working up to something. It's in the tense way she's holding herself in her seat, in the slight pucker to the skin between her brows and in the set of her lips. Dee's lips shift to a genuine and friendly smile as their given the choices for the afternoon's meal. She asks for a recommendation and takes it without a second thought and with sincere thanks. It's only after the pair is left alone that the young goldrider focuses hazel eyes on the wingleader. "Why isn't Flint conducted like the traditional wings?" must be the thing that she's wanted to ask and been struggling to find a more polite way (she's clearly failed in that regard). X'vin's glass arrives while Dee's ordering, and his own request is, "The usual," which probably explains more than anything else has. He swirls the red in his glass and considers her. Whether he finds her question appropriate or impolite, the curve of his smile remains unchanged. "I choose to trust my riders with a degree of autonomy that most leaders don't agree with," he says after a few moments. "Morale carries a rider - and a wing - much further than threats and punishment. Lilah was starting to understand, before..." Dee's wine goes untouched for the moment. Instead, her arms settle on the edge of the table, folded over one another so she can lean a little forward. "What do they do differently than the other wings as a result? What kinds of goals do you set for them?" For a moment it seems that might be all there is, but then suddenly and a touch awkwardly, "Do you want your weyrwomen to understand? I'm listening." Really. Her expression is open, her attention complete on what he might like to tell her. Aside from the fact that there's a dragon somewhere outside that could whisk her away, she's a captive and willing audience for his proselytizing should he elect to make the attempt. X'vin listens without interrupting, but he's somewhat less rapt; a waitstaff gets his attention by walking too closely, and he follows the man's progress right up until she grows awkward. One eyebrow betrays his amusement, quirking upward in contrast with the warmth of his eyes. "I'd like my weyrwomen to respect the choices made by a fighting wing...when there's nothing to fight." His tone is pointed. Setting his glass on the table, X'vin straightens, a sure sign he's ready to engage fully. "Flint did maintain friendly relationships with the Holds, until E'dre requested we withdraw. I don't think he understands. Keeping the Holds feeling safe, earning our tithes, so to speak. It is nothing so glorious as fighting Thread, but you can see how far the weyr's regard has fallen in a turn. People stealing from the tithes and the stores?" He lets that sink. "It will get worse if we're not careful." Dee flinches slightly at the mention of the stores, her eyes dropping down to the table just ahead of her arms. She shifts her positioning without really doing much to alter it before letting her eyes return to the wingleader. "It's sad how short-sighted people can be," she chooses the words carefully. "In an Interval, it's easy to lose sight of why we do this, on both sides," she pauses briefly to reach for her wine. "Just as in the Pass it's hard to think beyond the next Fall and the next, I'd imagine," she can only imagine, of course. "And it seems like whatever progress is made in one Interval is near forgotten in the swirl of chaos, Fall and fight that dominates a Pass." She chews her lower lip. "There's no right answer," concedes the bronzerider easily enough, "but there's no reason to fan the flames. Flint keeps up their drills, of course, because we can't afford to lose it. I hardly think six days of drilling it is anything but bravado, and certainly a waste of time when -- well. When there are ways we can be useful elsewhere. Simple things, really. Edric suggested a widening of road and clearing of greenery near the weyr, for example." He tsks lightly. "There is a difference between remembering the past, respecting it, learning from it, and digging your hooks in that it might stay forever." He takes his glass then, drinks long, and decides, "I don't think there's a perfect way. Just that there's a better one, and a better use for us than sitting in the weyr demanding to be brought supplies, in return for what?" "If your wing was called upon tomorrow to fight Thread," Dee wonders without accusation, "do you think you would fare as well as wings that do drill six days a seven?" She sips her wine before setting it back down, no swirling or anything that marks her as a wine connoisseur. "It seems like the roads would see more traffic during the Interval," she allows with cautious consideration. "What would you do if you held the Weyrleader's knot?" Perhaps another goldrider would ask this more tactfully, but Dee's inquiry seems based in honest curiosity. "Would all the wings shift to be like Flint?" "If my wing were called upon to fight Thread tomorrow, I have a feeling the concern would be less about who did the best in the 'Fall. Flint would do it's duty, and well, but I won't pretend that obsessive drilling wouldn't give some wings the advantage, just as it would in a Threadfall competition. But then again, how seriously is anyone taking it, right now?" For the roads, X'vin only holds his hands out, palms up in surrender. "Some people pick and choose the parts of their beliefs they like the most. The roads are less important than drills, and the greenery is less important than the roads. Slippery slope." As for the rest? He laughs with good nature, shaking his head. "I wouldn't presume to know. Ideally, you'd work with your wingleaders, for cohesion. Not every wing would work as mine, and not ever rider fits with Flint. It's not so cut and dry." "No one saw the comet pass coming," Dee reaches a hand up to rub across her suddenly wrinkled brow, smoothing the skin and her brows back down before she shifts to lean back in her chair. "I'd prefer if Thread fell that we didn't suffer loss, let alone catastrophic loss, in the first hit." Her eyes close briefly. "Shells. A turn ago I couldn't have imagined having this conversation." It's an off-topic observation, but it doesn't stop her from leaning back toward X'vin to tilt her head and ask, "Is there a happy medium? How would you do it? Split some wings to tasks with the Holds and Crafts and keep some solely drilling? Should the wings shuffle? Everyone get used to working with everyone else instead of just their own wing when it comes to drills?" She's thinking, that much is obvious from her expression, mind chasing down the what ifs and maybes. "Would you say it's safer for the wings to focus on one-in-a-million maybes or on circumstances that are telegraphed and preventable but ignored? An earthquake could bring this building down around our ears before the lunch hour is up, Dee. Would you stand in a doorframe to eat your meal, or would you consider building a sturdier structure? Is it in your nature to ignore things until they become a problem?" She won't have enough time to answer, because, "No. No, if that were the case, you would have sat and waited for Lilah to fix the problems, rather than steal from the stores in desperation. Desperate people don't think clearly." X'vin pauses long enough to flash a brilliant smile at the waiter who brings their meals, and leaves the wine bottle behind in his wake, but he doesn't immediately touch his food and the smile dims quickly. "Are you displeased with the way E'dre runs the weyr and his wings?" X'vin asks in kind imitation of her curiosity, instead of answering her question. "I've learned a lot since then," is quiet defense. "I'm still young and I still don't know everything, but I'm thinking, I'm projecting, I'm trying to understand the problems other people see, particularly if they're things I can't or don't have experience with yet." Dee sighs softly. "The northern Weyrs are different than the Southern ones. The way the Holds and Weyrs interact... It's-- I don't think I could describe it, but things seem so much colder, always so much more dire here." That in of itself seems to be difficult for Dee to wrap her head around. "I'm displeased with where Fort is at now. Things are being done, but I'm not sure they're the right things. I don't know enough to know if E'dre is aiding or stymieing attempts to forge the future of the Weyr. He means well, whatever his results." That much seems to make things all the more difficult to judge in the young woman's eyes. X'vin gently raps a nail against the curve of his glass; it sings soprano vibration for a moment. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and it doesn't change the result." He finally picks up his utensils while she compares the weyrs she knows, and he's fastidious about cutting into the meat on his plate into bite-sized pieces. "I know you've learned. It wasn't an attack, it was an observation that I think you can relate to now, more than you could six months ago. I came here with the tools and the connections to help Lilah get Fort into a better place, but with her gone -- E'dre and Hattie are hidebound and stubborn." The words are better than the curl of his lips around them. Dee is silent and staring for some moments in the wake of his words, but her expression gives little away. When she speaks, it is with a new question, "So what would you have me do differently?" Presumably after Taeliyth would give her a measure of power to do or not do things the same or differently than those presently tending to the running of the Weyr. This new line of conversation gives X'vin pause, fork and knife hovering over his plate for several heartbeats before he sets them down to study her. "Don't lose yourself. You said it yourself, Dee. You've learned, and hopefully enough that you can handle the things that are going to come your way. Lilah, Hattie, E'dre...they don't know people. Lilah was learning, but she's --" a wave of the hand. "You do. Don't lose that to what you're learning." "Not exactly what I meant," Dee tells the bronzerider with a wan smile after a sucked breath and its exhale. She sits back in her chair to look at him from this new, slightly slouched angle. "How would you have me deal with the Holds? Like you? Lending riders? I'm not very good at schmoozing," is nearly a warning. "Particularly with Holders." X'vin rolls his eyes and laughs, mostly at himself it seems. "That sounded more pat than I meant it to, but I'm serious, and I already answered that. People in general hear what they want to hear; from you, right now? They want to hear that you're just as dismissive of their plights and concerns as the current weyrleadership. If you want to schmooze them, let me buy you a few dresses and take you to a few gathers; if you want them to respect you, treat them like people, not a means to an end or a burden." But up comes his silverware again, so he can spear a piece of meat and consider her more seriously. "Would you have me escort you to the Holds as I did Lilah? She was learning. Shards, she even convinced Giarnon to let her take Erinta, and I didn't even know. Sometimes it's who you know." Dee's hands finally see fit to make busy with her meal. "I don't have a problem treating people like people, the thing is that sometimes treating people as people and not--" She squints at her wine, trying to find the words for it, finally waving her fork to dismiss the search, "Well, something else, anyway, just doesn't work out for furthering relations. Most of the Holders wouldn't have chosen a Southern farmcrafter for Weyrwoman." Fortunately or unfortunately for Dee, the Holders in question don't have a say about that anymore than most of the Weyr does. "It's generally preferred that I go with an escort when I go, for as much the safety of Hold relations as for my own safety," Dee's frowning briefly at that, but recovers in the next moment. "I'd be pleased to have your guidance, X'vin." For some, if not probably for all her visits out of Weyr. Certainly at this stage, it's probably wisest for Dee to play more than one side of a thing before committing herself. Call it gaining life experience. "You'll learn quicker than Lilah, then. In the beginning, teaching her to smile was like pulling her teeth out. You could just see it, here." He points to his eyes. "You haven't got that. It hardly matters where you're from now -- I'll vouch for you." He says it in a way that says it is worth more than anyhting else he could give her. He eats another bite with an mmm sound. "They didn't ask for a brownrider as a weyrleader or their Lord to vanish either. They're learning to deal with the unexpected as much as you are. You'd be surprised how much treating them like people will get you." His smile is grim when he notes, "I doubt they'd hurt you. They'd be stuck with a weyrwoman they know doesn't want the knot. No matter. It's less the visits and more the practice talking to them. We can start later. After lunch, maybe." "Maybe," Dee suggests after a few bites, "you could start me off with some smaller places that do a fair bit of farming. If nothing else, I'll be able to be truly interested in what the Holder has to say about his land. I've been thinking that must be my point of common ground for starting, mustn't it?" She lifts her brows at X'vin in question. Still, her attention for the topic seems to be wandering with the increased focus on what's on her plate. The recommendation must have been good. "That could work," says X'vin slowly, with the ever-hanging but on the end, unspoken as he focuses on his meal. He'll elaborate on it later, presumably. After lunch. |
Comments
Alida (01:53, 13 October 2015 (PDT)) said...
Catching their attention while they're younger, more malleable, X'vin? ;D
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