Logs:Distrust
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| RL Date: 21 June, 2011 |
| Who: Elgin, Iolene |
| Type: [[Concept:{{{type}}}|{{{type}}}]] |
| What: Iolene and Elgin speak of distrust of the elders and the Weyr. Elgin makes Iolene cry and run away. |
| Where: Inner Caverns, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day {{{day}}}, Month {{{month}}}, Turn {{{turn}}} ({{{IP}}} {{{IP2}}}) |
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| It is a bustling time of day, the inner caverns are a hub, where people often have to pass to go on to their next place, and a place to meet as a group before heading somewhere else together. Elgin is seated here at a table, with papers spread out before him, unlike the others gathered he is alone, though this may leave him as prey for anyone else searching out a spot as a loner. On the island, Iolene used to be good at spotting out the loner. The used to part, apparently is just as true now as it was then as the blonde girl idles aimlessly, as while others use the inner caverns as a hub towards greater and better places, without an actual job to do yet, Io uses it to observe. The knee bent with a foot to the wall pushes her off her leaned and she makes a slow trek towards Elgin, weaving through the people obstacles along the way. "Hey you," comes forth from what is likely a familiar voice midst the din of the crowd. Io'll even spare a lopsided half-smile for the other displaced islander. "Haven't seen much of you around lately. Then again," the girl concedes with a rueful little pull to her mouth, "I don't think I've wanted to see much of anyone myself." "Hmmph.." Is Elgin's first reply but as his brain starts to process the voice he looks up and returns the half smile with a mirror image, "Hey" Is offered in the sleepy tone of someone how has been reading for hours and has not yet reawoken to the world around them. He waves to a seat, moving some of the parchment into a bigger stag so that their a comfortable space on the table for the girl, "No? You doing okay here?" His brows furrow, a look of concern, "I've been around, reading mostly. If I'm going to be here, I want to know where /here/ is." He shrugs. "I'll leave the studying to you smarter folks," Iolene allows generously as she slides into the offered seat. A sway of blonde hair shields her face as she confides in low tones, "I should be in one of those classes with the harper to learn about Pern's history, but... I want to be outdoors. I want to smell the air. I miss- I miss the water and their lake is all frozen." Because, fresh water does that. Freeze. "But other than that, I'm doing ok I guess. That party a few days ago-," the young woman's cheeks crimson, the good cheer of her features shifting towards uncertain; as if unsure of what she's exactly feeling other than embarrassed. So instead, she concludes with a very delicately posed, "-Mainlanders have funny ideas of what a good party means." Elgin waves a dismissive hand, "Not smarter, just curious." The male nods sympathetically and reaches a hand across the tableto pat the girls arm, if the gesture is accepted. "True, the climate is different, but the snow can be nice. It is pretty when it sticks. I went exploring yesterday, there are some neat places...but you're right, it isn't the same." He chuckles at the frozen comment, "It's true, but it won't be frozen forever, and they do that thing on the ice, skating?" He offers, "Did you try it? I wasn't brave enough, but the kids seemed to like it." He crosses his arms and leans back in the chair, "The Harper lessons are good, give them a chance, at least we are /learning/ here." He chuckles good naturedly at the girls blush, of course it is probably much easier for the boys to adapt to the societal differences, "It is true, things are ... looser... around here. I heard the run-aways got caught by a greenrider and his, special friend." He puts an emphasis on special that indicates just what kind of special it is. "I think it has something to do with the dragons, and politics...I hear when the gold rose at the party everyone felt it a little?" He asks more as if for affirmation of his thought than a statement, "I had already left then." Elgin's emphasis on 'special' crimsons Iolene's cheeks even further, and a backwards glance casts towards where their prison, aka the barracks, is, seeking. Not finding what she's looking for, the blonde girl turns again and just shakes her head for most all of what Elgin says, sparing him a tiny grin. "Like I said. Smarter." But his last elicits a short pause, and Iolene blinks a few times. "Felt what a little?" "Sorry..." Elgin offers, in the way of a gentleman at having embarrassed a young lady. He glances back as she does, "You trying to find something or someone? Can I help?" He sits up and fiddles with the papers trying to think of a polite way to answer the girl, "I heard that the people around, felt, a little more like being closer to each other." He raises and eyebrow and turns his head thoughtfully, "Though I suppose if you were there and it had happened you would have known. So I guess it didn't." "Naw," caught in looking, Iolene has the grace to look embarrassed again, but this time more clearly for not focusing her attention onto Elgin. "I-," and then he's talking again and she listens intently, sinking further down into her chair until her head is only propped up by her fist underneath her chin. "Right. Yeah. I would've known. Like how Jaques and Evie should've known." She can't quite keep the bitterness out of that last but a wrinkling of her nose shifts her from bitter to amiable in a split second. "Tell me about what you're looking up and learning about?" Elgin raises an eyebrow but knows better than to press the issue. "Jaques and Evie?" Is said almost to himself, maybe the parchment is right, "What do you mean?" He asks, trying to sound empathetic while at the same time curious about the theory he's heard. The bitterness is noted but he moves on in the conversation with the girl, "Well, some things like that." He shrugs, "The political structure of the weyr and holds, how leadership here is chosen, if it is possible to have any leadership in the weyr without one of those dragons." He shakes his head, "And there is some stuff about just what they are used for, how the bond workds...Anything I can get my hands on really." He offers quietly, "If they let us go home will you stay or go?" There's an inscrutable look passed to Elgin as he asks after Jaques and Evie, as if she's uncertain whether he knows or doesn't know, but the moment passes, and apparently in those seconds, Iolene's decided not to clarify any further. Particularly as he shares what he's learning about. "This gossiping passel of girls I was watching earlier commented about how since Cadejoth won Iovniath's flight, it means that peach-fuzz boy is still their leader. Well, I added the peach fuzz part. I don't know how anyone can leave it up to the mating habits of beasts. It seems so... what if you get a leader who's just awful?" Will she stay or will she go? For now, the question isn't answered, though it changes Io again, and perhaps the guilty shift of her eyes over her shoulder might be answer enough. There is only a shrug as the conversation line is dropped, Elgin's look says he has no idea but constraints of his gender don't let him pry into such messy things as other people's relationships, unless the information is volunteered so he goes on, and nods, "Yes, leadership of the weyr is determined by flights." He gives a shrug, "You can end up with bad leadership anyway you do it, the dragons are /supposed/ to be good at choosing who will ride them. I don't understand how they can do that right out of the egg but..." He lets the line of thought drop off, "Besides doing it another way doesn't guarantee leadership that cares about its people anyway." It is said with some bitterness indicating he doesn't trust the leadership of either side at the moment. Elgin can't read the look so instead he offers, "I might stay, if there is a choice involved." He shrugs, but doesn't state why. When Elgin offers his opinion on the should I stay or should I go, Iolene purses her lips. A cool hand reaches out across the table to try and pat his shoulder, reassuring. "I think it'd be hard for anyone to want to go back," though it doesn't quite answer on what she would do, "There's food in abundance here. Clothing. Shelter. There are, well, now at least there are less deaths. We've survived, but-," and here Io hesitates, the hand to the boy's shoulder tightening just slightly. "What if there's a price we have to pay to stay here? Dev thinks... Dev thinks we should be seeking out our ancestral rights. We're not... we're not weyrfolk. We're Blooded." Whatever Blooded might actually mean, other than a designation to turn Khorde's face apoplectic. Elgin nods, his eyes narrow slightly as he studies the girl for a moment, "I didn't mean /here/ exactly, just not back /there/. I was actually thinking about joining a craft maybe." He sighs softly,examines her face again slightly and then devulges, "I'm not sure that either sides leadership can be fully trusted, or rather, that they are telling us the full truth." He leaves it at that for now, "Here, there is some chance of doing something meaningful with my life, instead of just trying to survive day by day,maybe move up through a craft, make things that help people." He shrugs, "Here leadership is done through the dragons, in holds it has to do with bloodlines...Being 'blooded' means you belong to one of those lines. I guess if they have kept records of 'us' before we left, there would be a way to trace them, except I'm not sure /we/ kept records, we only had one harper." "And from what I hear, she's not really a harper," adds Iolene, thoughtful. "Maybe Emmeline will learn to become a real harper." On the subject of other records, Io has very little to offer, merely shrugging as she dwells on the subject more. But something piques and climbs up into her thoughts again, "Wait? You don't trust our elders?" Elgin bites his bottom lip and chews thoughtfully, "Not so much distrust, as don't believe we are getting the full story from..." He pauses and leans back, as if to indicate it's no big deal, "Look, these guys knew exactly where we were. If there had been no communication since the settlement began they wouldn't have known it even survived much less that it was in the same spot." He pauses to let that sink in a bit, "That is pretty big information, ever wonder why we never really learned to read?" He lifts an eyebrow, "I mean we did a little, but nothing significant, not unless you were an elder, or going to be some day." He frowns, the deep lines of someone who has been haunted by his thoughts for some time, "But as soon as we got here../Everyone/ reads here, and really well too." The thoughts are disjointed, but perhaps not lining up yet, but he's starting to make connections. "I-," Iolene starts to speak whatever's on the tip of her tongue and then cuts it off abruptly. "I don't think they knew exactly where we were. They weren't even lookin' for us from what I hear. And I learned to read. Had to if I was going to take over for grams. I think Emmeline and her family tried their best, but you can't force people who don't want to to learn how to read, especially, when there's not much for reading." Flustered now, as she tries to parse through her varied thoughts to try and present something linear to Elgin. "They weren't looking for /us/. We were just an accident for what they were really looking for." "But that's just it Iolene..." Elgin trails off, he doesn't dislike the girl but her life would have been different, "You had to learn because were going to be an elder, but the rest of us really weren't even given the opportunity, kids are forced to here. It's cumpolsory." He pronounces the word funny, but he's doing his best. He blinks, "Nevermind..." He studies the girl and shakes his head, "Nevermind...just idle talk." Aware of her status in the island's dubious elite the moment she spoke, it's Elgin's words that take the good humor out of the young woman and she sits back into her chair, her hands finding the air pockets beneath her arms to tuck under. Hurt, but stubborn, Io's rich voice turns brittle, "I liked our way better. You learn if you wanted to. You hunt if you wanted to. You find whatever joy you can out of life. No one here seems happy." The stubbornness propels an unkind form of her bluntness out of her mouth, one she might regret later, but spills forth recklessly now: "No one stopped you from learning if you wanted to," Io points out, "It's not like you could do much in the way of hunting or feeding the settlement when you were younger'n twelve anyway other than listen to th'harper." "It is always easier not to change." Elgin offers a soft peace making smile to the girl, "I applaud those who want to go back, if that's what you want then you should." He pauses and shakes his head, "But it's not for me Io, not for me." No need to explain why again and so he drops it, "Happier there? Maybe, maybe cause we didn't know anything else, the more you know the more choices you can make. If I went back, if they ever let us decide, at least I would know that I was choosing it. You know what I mean?" He leans forward offering a grin to Iolene, "That's why I want to know /everything/...so I make sure that it is /me/ making the decisions for me, about everything." He points to the stacks of parchment that seem to be a permanent fixture to him now, he's heard the whispers from the older women in the quarters, "I want to know /everything/ about anything I can get my hands on." A breath later has Iolene attempting to reclaim any shred of calm, but it doesn't work too well for what Elgin says ignites her temper again, and the blonde visibly struggles against what she wants to say in favor of what she does: "I wasn't convincing you to go back. But you say our elders can't be trusted cause you couldn't find it in yourself to sit down and learn. And you say that they knew exactly where we were, but from all I can tell, they don't want us here any more than any of us want to be here, so if they knew exactly where we were and came out looking exactly for us, explain that to me? Why they seem so unprepared for us actually being here?" It's a trial trying to keep her voice steady and low, and the emotional trauma of the last few weeks takes its toll as she starts to cry, a sort of crying no form of grinning he does will fix. "I thought you'd help me laugh, but..." Clearly, she was wrong and with a push back out of her chair, mindless of the scene she might make, she pelters out to the outside snow, bare feet and all. Celadion makes his way from the snowy bowl with a line of fish on a string. Really sad guppy-sized fish, but FISH. He's even /smiling/ as he makes his way into the too-warm inner cavern. Passing Iolene he lifts his free hand to wave and then turns to watch her go, gawking. Elgin is sitting leaned back in his chair watching the female leave, not quite gawking himself but looking completely exasperated. He breathes out heavily as if in his confusion he had forgotten to breathe, his shoulders slump forward and he turns back to the papers, though from the way he fidgits with them it is doubtful he is actually reading them. "What happened?" Celadion's head is still turned to peer in the direction that Iolene has fled but now and again he glances at Elgin accusingly. "What did you say to her?" That isn't so much accusing as curious, bringing his catch of fish closer. "I mis-read her." Elgin frowns softly, "I meant no offense, but she may be more stressed out about everything than I anticipated." He shrugs but acknowledges the accusing look and nods, "I'm afraid I added to that stress. Though I didn't mean to." He cocks his head to one side and nods approvingly, "Nice catch! How did you fish in the lake, it's frozen?" He seems very curious about this and leans forward and points to a chair, "Seat?" Celadion frowns as well, "Must have really mis-read her. Were you trying to sell her on your grand idea that the weyr is wonderful?" The question comes out dry but also curious. "Maybe you should go say you're sorry for upsetting her. Everyone's on pins and needles." He does have a seat, careful of the line of fish. "Eh, I broke a hole in the ice. It's thinner on the far side. It felt /so/ good getting out there. But, then I had to come back." Elgin chuckles, "No. Not exactly, just maybe that it isn't as bad as we think." However, he rubs his temples with his right hand and nods, "I will, later, when she's calmed down a bit." He chews on his bottom lip thinking about something else for a moment before turning back to the fish, "I wouldn't have thought of that...It is so thick on this side." He blinks at the fish, then his mind wonders again. "I hope she's okay, I don't think it was all me, that was a big reaction for the conversation we had." "Walking has been helping." Helping what? Something apparently. Letting out a soft sigh he nods his head, "Yeah, maybe you're right. Going head to head with an emotional woman never ends well. So, what were you two talking about? Aside from your trying to win her over to the 'Weyr-cause'." "Walking?" Elgin asks, "I should try and get outside some, it is what we are use to it isn't it?" To the man's other comment he says, "Too true, Caleedion, too true." Elgin grins at the man, though it isn't exactly his normal light-hearted one, and he cocks his head to one-side, "I don't think anyone is really listening to what I'm saying." He sighs, "When I talk to one of us, they think I'm all pro-weyr, and when I talk to one of them they think 'shard'n act like I'm trying to get everyone to marry an exile or something." Celadion laughs softly, maybe with a touch of bitterness. "Well, you're -trying- to do something." At the 'marry an exile' his eyebrows lift in question, "Who'd want to marry some inbred savage like us?" Not offended at all, he just knows what he's been told. "You got your eye on a girl Elgin?" He peers around to make sure no one else is listening and leans in closer as though the other man might share some informatin. Elgin laughs his first real laughter in several days, it isn't to smooth something over or make friends with someone just real laughter, "Me?" He eyes Celadion thoughtfully, "No. See people read too much into what I am saying." But he acknowledges the first statement, "Yes, and I will too. Do -something- and you'll be there with me when I do it." He furrows his brows, "But no one will know." He laughs, but this time it matches Celadion's in bitterness. "At least here I feel like there may be an opportunity." He pauses, "Maybe that is what Iolene didn't understand, she was destined for -something-, there I would have done the same thing my whole life with no choice." And then he second with a smirk, "I suppose someone who can handle a savage, takes a strong kind of woman, not sure the women here have it." He says jokingly. |
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