Logs:Differences
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| RL Date: 30 May, 2015 |
| Who: Dee, Kaelige |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: In the wake of Elaruth's hatching (32a), a couple of the unchosen return to the barracks and disagree. |
| Where: Candidate Barracks, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 11, Month 12, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Hasengar/Mentions, Jemizen/Mentions |
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>---< Candidate Barracks, Fort Weyr >----------------------------------------<
The Candidates' Barracks is longer than it is wide, with the head of each
cot head against one of the two side walls. Alongside each cot, there is a
hook affixed to the wall where a Candidate's robe may be hung, while
clothes and personal effects are usually kept in the trunks at the foot of
each. Designed to house about a hundred young men and women at any given
time, the place alternates between feeling cramped when dragons go out on
Search and very empty when there is no clutch on the Sands.
The beds are neatly made when Candidates are imminent and expected to be
kept that way by each young person who claims them. Between clutches, they
are stripped bare, with linens kept in cabinets along the walls nearest
the entrance. Candidate robes are stored in a large nook off to the side
for Candidates to pick and choose from; especially old or filthy robes are
discarded regularly, with new ones made by the seamstresses or apprentice
weavers in their spare time. Fortunately, for all Kaelige is about not having friends, not being honestly nice, not doing honestly good things, not being honest at all... he at least lets the farmcrafter cling to his tear and snot-soaked robe all the up the trek of the tunnel. He doesn't appear outwardly affected, not like the hollow, sunken faces that surround them. The other girls that shake and sob into each other. The boys who were either crying and now hide it, or hanging their heads in guilt for turning their head away from the green in hopes of having a bronze instead. Misery and guilt, Kaelige doesn't seem a part of it. He's no newcomer to loss, but he's well aware of being around those who are. So he's patient. His one saving grace may be that he is patient in so many things. As they arrive back in the barracks, he's steered nearer her cot, not to toss her on it (yet), but without an idea of where else to take her. "Are you gonna be alright?" By the time they're back to the barracks, Dee has made snotty and salty her own robe as the only thing she had to wipe her face. There are no more tears by the time they're there, only an odd detached numbness that might suggest to Kaelige that he's leading the mentally absent. It's as if the graceful girl hasn't heard him as she seems to take physical cue from being near her cot to stepping away from his arm, murmuring, "I don't understand," after his own words, though it seems like she doesn't mean the question at hand. She makes quick work of stripping out of the white robe and reaches for the shirt and skirt she abandoned on the bed when they arrived, only she turns abruptly toward previously awkward-boy Kaelige with the shirt in hand and no other clothes to ask with a kind of desperation, "Did you want her?" Kaelige standing with a defiance about him, he crosses his arms and watches her carefully. Defiance of what exactly doesn't really seem to be important. As she stripping and then- quite suddenly- fully frontal in front of him he doesn't turn away. The typical male up-and-down look doesn't follow, at least. He remains reserved at looking at her face. That, probably is the awkward response he chooses to not display in other means. No, he'll just remain staring at her with his eerie, creepy gaze. "No." His flat tone meets her desperation. "Neither did Hasen-whatever his name, nor did any of the Holders." He knows that's not comforting, and it seems like he's content at not being so. "Do you fault the boys for that? Whether they wanted her or not shouldn't mattered if the one she wanted was there." Given that Dee moves to pull her shirt on and then her skirt, nudity clearly wasn't the point here, just a circumstance of the conversation. Being weyrbred, it's possible the brunette doesn't register this as a cause for discomfort. She glares at him; it might be irrational, especially since none of them can do anything for her now, but there it is. "Do you care that she's gone?" She interrogates, "That her person wasn't here? Or wasn't near enough?" Her eyes scan the barracks as if she half-expects to find her brother. Her brother who is not a candidate. "Jem," is more to herself than Kael, her brow creasing with concern. Again he answers, "No." Kaelige finally looks away at that, more because he's interested in grabbing his hooded top and gloves off of his cot that's not too far. He felt himself fortunate that the robe he picked out was long-sleeved, covered much and wasn't too torn. Unlike Dee, however, he doesn't strip in front of her. Could he really be that modest? "I don't care. There's loss in all things, Dee. For all the lives that started today, should I- or anyone in the weyr for that matter- focus on one lost life? People die every day, riders day all the time. Or are killed, or-" He waves a hand in the air, dismissive. "..Whatever." It's not the joking, snide Kaelige here. Rather, his voice is older, aged from something that seems like experience in the matter. "Just because they do," Dee doesn't challenge that, but she does demand, "is that any reason to dismiss any single life? Where is your humanity?" The last is less accusation and more plea. "A single life is easy to dismiss." Clearly, different upbringings shine here. "If you don't believe me, then consider what you're Standing for as an example." He points a finger downwards, as if pointedly indicating the Weyr itself. "You Impress a dragon, good for you. You train to fly Thread that doesn't exist at the moment. For those that did? Every dragon that hatched was precious because a percent of them would be killed later. They need the numbers. Not precious little lives. One person is not important in light of the masses. One dragon in the time of an Interval? So what." Even he knows the 'so what' is harsh. And he backs off, standing up straighter and glancing away for a moment. There's a moment of visible decision as Dee's expression clouds with an unusual mix of upset, anger and a just visible flash of disgust. "I didn't ask if it was easy," the older girl tells Kaelige, her words crispy enunciated before she turns to storm out of the barracks. Kaelige's eyes flash dangerously at Dee's response. A dangerousness that speaks nothing of the boy who picks at things just for the fun of it. He takes a single step towards Dee as if to stop her or make some other comment as she rushes out the entranceway of the barracks, but stops himself. Instead of words, he only shakes his head slowly and turns his back on her, and everyone else still lingering in the barracks. |
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