Difference between revisions of "Logs:The Whys of Etiquette"

>---< Weyrling Classroom, Fort Weyr >----------------------------------------<

  This cavern could easily house up to sixty weyrlings at a time, with      
  desk-space provided in neat rows for academic lessons and classes taught  
  by both the weyrlingmasters themselves and the Weyr's posted Harpers.     
  Heavy tapestries line the walls, depicting wings of dragons fighting      
  Thread, perhaps to serve as a reminder of the ultimate task and skills    
  that must be passed down the generations. At the head of the room is a    
  sturdy desk for the instructor, beside which is a tall filing cabinet from
  which writing materials can be claimed and distributed. A chalkboard has  
  been hung against the wall in full view of the rows of desks before it. At
  the back of the room, there is also a sandtable and space for storing wax 
  tablets and important texts.                                              
                                                                            
  At first glance, it looks like a wooden screen has been set against the   
  wall in the last third of the room, but closer inspection reveals that    
  this heavy screen is set on small wheels and can be folded and drawn back 
  to reveal a hidden feature of the classroom.

Aislara has taken to lecturing on whatever etiquette classes she is able to hold, having spent a significant amount of time from the last cycle in researching and adjusting the curriculum's presentation style. It is not necessarily the most exhilarating lesson that is taught and she gently shakes one or two weyrlings' awake when they doze off during it. She wraps up class with a request for an essay on the subject and settles at her desk. She begins to organize her notes into neat piles, making a few notes on another hide as she does so. With her focus at her desk, she doesn't pay attention to the exit from the room and assumes most have left when the chattering voices recede.

Most have left. Really, it's just Dee and Taeliyth left. It's Taeliyth's mind, refreshingly cool with the shade under wooden boughs, that reaches for Ryerith. « Dee is troubled. » The girl is silent and staring, still seated and staring at the notes on her desk. She looks overwhelmed, but at least this form of the feeling doens't seem to come with tears. Her frame is stiff and each breath is an effort. « Would Aislara speak with her? » the gold requests. « This... I'm not sure I have the tact. » Tact isn't one of Taeliyth's greatest skills.

Ryerith's mind is always receptive to the younger dragons and at the coolness that eases in, her ribbons wave gently against an unseen breeze. « Is she? Will Aislara? Of course. That is what we are here for » Ryerith recedes briefly from her contact with the gold, allowing her to sense the conversation she opens with her rider. Aislara looks up from her desk and lets her eyes rest on Dee for a moment with a small frown and a concerned furrow to her brows. « Do you know what troubles her? Sometimes we can help others understand our riders by sharing with each other. » Aislara pushes up from her desk and abandons the ordering of her notes to walk slowly towards Dee. She slides into a seat beside the weyrling and turns, hands folding in her lap. "Dee," she begins, her voice lowered and calm, "what's wrong?"

« She is, » Taeliyth confirms, distractedly, and then with an inward sigh she shakes her physical head. « I'm sorry, it's too jumbled. I can't make it out. » The riders will have to muddle their way through this one, it seems. Dee's eyes draw to the greenrider when she joins her, eyes too wide and full of the combined anxiety and worry that is silently plaguing her. "How," she starts, brows already risen severely to impart the magnitude of her question, "am I supposed to remember all of this?" A finger taps the notes in front of her. "Let alone all the things in the rest of this training," weyrlinghood, "or my goldrider training. I'm smart, Ai-- ma'am, but this feels more than impossible." At least the teen has some idea of what's bothering her (even if it's exaggerated in true teenage fashion).

Ryerith gives a mental lean against Taeliyth, comfort offered in the warmth of her presence. « It gets easier. To understand them. You'll find patience for them too. Sometimes they still do not listen. But you can keep trying. » She untangles a jumble of ribbons in their shared mindscape, pulling a blue, a green, and a purple ribbon free to dangle in that breeze. « Have patience. » Aislara listens to Dee's questions with a thoughtful and kind expression, her face smoothed of concern as her brows relax and she nods a few times to indicate she is listening. "You have to study," she answers, "and sometimes you grasp things very quickly. Other things? You have to study harder. I find that writing things down over and over helps me form a memory for it." She smiles then, "Many tasks feel impossible when we stare at them as a whole. Let's take it one step at a time and dismantle all you feel pressured to learn. I imagine some of what we are learning here will be reiterated in your gold rider lessons. That'll be another opportunity to practice and re-learn it. It'll help you retain it. Lists may help. Do you want to work on some techniques together?"

« I'm not a patient dragon, » Taeliyth may lack much in the way of self-awareness, but she seems to understand this much already and it's delivered matter-of-factly. She, notably, doesn't seem especially bothered by Dee's being troubled, she's just made the best connection she can for fixing the problem: Aislara. "I know how to study," Dee answers the advice with a miserable look at her notes. "I can name you any plant you can find in Southern and many of the Northern varieties as well; I remember the line of descent from one to the next and-- that is so much easier than this." Possibly because she wanted to learn that and this has been thrust upon her. "I've been a student for turns," she has that much going for her. "But putting these things into practice? Why can't we all just be people to one another? Why does rank even matter? Old Guzman never made much of his mastery. Why does anyone need to be important anyway?" The control on her temper slips, her annoyance coming out in words. It's not at Aislara, but at the papers that she directs the words. When she lifts her eyes to the greenrider, it seems that what questions were asked in exasperation are also genuinely questions she's seeking answers to and hopes Aislara has them.

Ryerith comes as close as she ever does to disapproving as she states her last sentiment on the matter, « That is unfortunate. » She doesn't pull all the way from the gold, leaving enough of a connection to keep an "ear" for Taeliyth should she have any other requests. Aislara listens quietly as Dee vents her frustrations. As the young goldrider lifts her gaze to Aislara's, she'll find a somber reply. "Some things are the way they are, Dee. I'm not a Harper and it is not in my nature to question the way things are done. I'm sorry if that's not helpful," she pauses, knowing that this answer may not be exactly what Dee was looking for. "But I feel it's important for me to be honest in the fact that I've never questioned the rank of a Lord or a Lady, or a Mastercrafter, or a Weyrleader. It's made sense to me that people have to gain knowledge, learn and prove themselves in a Craft. And often the same applies in the Weyr - to advance to higher positions, we must do well. Whether or not I agree to the right of a Lord or Lady simply being born with it has no effect on our society as a whole. These are the ways Pern has shaped itself and all we can do is navigate it." She purses her lips briefly and tilts her head, considering a thought as she glances away from Dee and towards a distant wall. "Now, when you are a weyrwoman, you may choose to be more lax in your approach to rank. You may let others be lax with you. For now," she looks back to Dee, "you can do nothing but learn and apply it."

Dee sighs when Aislara says she isn't the type to question, but given that Dee doesn't seem to question everything, she must sympathize with this viewpoint enough that she doesn't actively seek to challenge it. "I'd rather advance like in a craft," she does confess. "As I gain knowledge or experience or--" She bites her lip and gives the greenrider a defeated look. "But I don't get to have that, do I." It's not a question because she knows the answer. "One moment on the hatching sands and 'Lady Dahlia' it is." Not really, but close enough. She briefly looks pained and then apologetic, her eyes going down her notes. "I'm going to bungle everything up. I know it." She does sound convinced. "It's not like there's even extra time to study in. Every hour feels so-- so busy. And I can't even spend time with my friends so how am I supposed to get through this when people don't want me to be with him?" She flushes, "Them. Be with them." Of course, after the scoldings that Dee and Ka'ge both received about the rumor floating that they were sharing a bed in the barracks, Aislara can likely easily guess who the 'he' is, especially since the WLM staff has been doing their part to actively tire each of them out individually and give them reasons not to be around one another outside of lessons.

Aislara simply watches Dee as she speaks and continues to assess her with quiet solemnity after she's spoken. "Part of being a dragonrider is we don't always get the freedoms that many people think go hand-in-hand with Impressing a dragon. We have looser rules, we accept differences more readily than a Hold or even a Craft may, but we have rules to follow all the same. Speak to your classmates on how they attempt to study and if you still find yourself struggling come and find me." She rises and does not seem inclined to 'catch' Dee in her slip in regards to her behavior with Ka'ge. "I've got to go and prepare for another lesson, Dee. I'll see you soon." She offers a small smile that is a friendly enough dismissal as she turns to gather up her supplies from the desk. She waits until Dee has left the room to take her seat and fold her hands on the desk to look at them. When she finally leaves the room, the rest of the day she'll seem distracted as she reviews her discussion with the young goldrider.

Dee's hazel eyes settle on Aislara's face as she speaks. The defeat is still there, but something else too as the older woman's words sink in: a kind of acceptance. "Yes, ma'am." Then as the greenrider is going, something has Dee rising from her chair to call quietly, "Aislara?" Then, quietly and meant, "Thank you." It might not help with the dearth of lessons she's faced with or the studying she must do, but the greenrider's words seem to helped in a way that goes beyond the to do lists and daily tasks. She's not smiling, but she's closer now than when the class ended and that's something.