Logs:Forward Thinking, With Beer
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| RL Date: 20 June, 2013 |
| Who: D'kan, Telavi |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Weyrlings visit the Snowasis for drinks after wing-shadowing duties with Glacier. Discussions proceed. |
| Where: Snowasis, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 12, Month 1, Turn 32 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: Steady, today's snowfall sticks, creating dunes on the bowl floor. |
| Mentions: Aishani/Mentions, Alida/Mentions, Azaylia/Mentions, Sabella/Mentions, Z'ian/Mentions |
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It takes some doing, but after making his way through the other tavern-goers, D'kan edges through near the booth, emerging with two empty glasses in one hand, and a pitcher of something that he's carefully balancing in the other, careful of any jostling elbows and the like. He reaches the commandeered booth safely, eases the pitcher onto the table, then sets down the glasses before finally easing out of his own winter and rider gear. By the sheen on his face, he's right on the verge of overheating. Though, "I'd rather be melting than freezing, but it's still pretty uncomfortable either way," he states before taking a seat. He moves some of the leftover items from the previous group so their stacked on the end of the table, adding, "Care to do the honors?" nodding his chin toward the pitcher. No sooner said than poured, or at least, that's what Telavi sets herself to. "I'll take melting too," she agrees. "At least we know the winter gear's working, right? Here," and she slides the first glass his way, even if he's not done, before working on her own. Though she's slipped out of her coat, she's still very much in weyrling mode instead of that of her usual visits to the Snowasis, infrequent though they are, starting with how her cap's been replaced atop her still-braided hair. "So, are you ever tempted to foist your wingsecond knot off on anyone else? Or maybe I should ask, how many times a day?" D'kan finishes shrugging out of his coat and leaves it bunched behind him, then tucks his gloves into his hat and sets them to the side on the bench. He thanks Telavi quietly for the glass of beer, looks over the rest of the Snowasis for a few seconds, waiting until she's all set with her own glass. "Actually... well. Sometimes I want to throw the thing away, but foist it?" He turns back to the other weyrling and grins, shrugging. "Not so much. I rather like working with Sabella, and I'm getting to know all sorts of new stuff about Alida. So it's been good overall." He cuts into his answer there to hold his glass toward Telavi. "Here's to the shadows of Glacier," the brownrider quips, smiling crookedly. "'Leave it lying in the snow for someone to trip over,' then. No?" But by the sound of it, Telavi's teasing, and she duly clinks her glass with D'kan's. "The shadows, and none of us or them falling down the mountainside... except where that would make things an Avalanche, I suppose. Not to mention, search and rescue practice." A quick smile's followed by a quick drink. "I wonder, if we asked all the other wingseconds here the same thing, if they'd say the same as you... about wanting to throw it over, at least sometimes. Since they don't have a Sabella and an Alida, particularly." After a first drink of much-needed and -deserved beer, D'kan leans back and gives the tavern another quick study while reaching up to scratch the bridge of his nose for a second. Yay, snow-burn. "Good question," he answers a moment later, then turns back to Telavi, grinning again. "Hard to say, though. I mean... wingsecond for us weyrlings? Bit different than, well. Glacier. Boreal." Ahem. "I wonder if it helps when there are two wingseconds instead of just one. Anything about that your special program taught you?" That being the silver thread program, though D'kan stopped referring to it directly some time ago. Should she have noticed. "Just a bit." Telavi's dimples show briefly, and she tips her glass, watching the liquid collect bits of foam and tug them away again. "It's said that they help when the three are compatible, when they don't get competitive, when they can share the same long-term outlook. It's buffering one another, you know?" She glances back across the table at him. "The hard part is, by now, not really being sure what's from 'the program' and what's more or less common sense. If that makes sense." "Totally makes sense," D'kan answers quietly before taking another quaff of beer. Yeah, definitely a pitcher night. "Makes sense, working with Sabella and Alida, too. It'll get weird, though, when... y'know. They start splitting us up into the real wings." He sets his beer on the table, hands surrounding it on either side, though not quite touching the glass. "Have you eye on any of the wings yet?" "Yes," and it comes out half as a sigh. "I have wondered that." What will happen. Telavi considers him, her eyes more blue than green today, and thoughtful before she leans her elbow on the table, leans her cheek on her hand and looks to the curve of her glass once more. Her fingertip traces it, back and forth. "I'm mostly looking at Lower Flight, of course, but I'm trying to keep my eyes open. Snowdrift's had pluses, Z'ian's said some things that make me think twice in a good way about Boreal... but I don't know that I want a wing that's in the thick of things, and it seems like he is. What about you? Do you know what you want?" "That... pretty much sums up my thoughts about Boreal, too," D'kan answers before laughing softly. "Kazavoth's all for it. Thinks it would be... exciting," he adds, voice changing for a moment to impersonate his lifemate, "buuut..." He trails off, then shakes his head slightly. "Snowdrift has been on my mind for ages now, mostly because that's where my mentor flies, so... I guess I've spent more time with that wing than any of the others, just by association. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet. There's still time, right? Polaris is up next, so... yeah. I guess we'll see. Any idea where the others are aiming?" Tela's turn to laugh after another glance back, but it's for the imitation. "I can just see him," she says. Well, hear," but he knows, doesn't he? and she's listening again, playing with her mug again. A slow drink later, "I hope there's time. I hope there won't wind up being a lot of people piling after one wing and then it gets competitive," and the greenrider shudders. She does mention a couple names, a couple wings, but, "I think it's so up in the air, with the tithe and the queens and everything. A rider would about have to have her eyes closed, wouldn't she, to think otherwise?" "Yeah, that's been on my mind, too," D'kan replies quietly, picking up his glass for a drink, though it doesn't quite make it to his lips yet. "Like... any other time, I think Kaz and I could do just fine in Glacier. But then I think about the muck we'd be voluntarily stepping into, and..." He trails off again, shrugs a shoulder, then drinks from his glass. "Stuff's just so messed up right now. I mean--" He breaks off and glances around them, looking slightly pensive. A moment later, though, he leans forward, elbows on the edge of the table. "I'm really glad Z'ian and Azaylia stepped in and stuff, but... shells." That, apparently, demands more beer as he drinks down another good mouthful or so. "Right." Her nod that succeeds it could as well be a repetition of the word, and then Tela's leaning into the table too to listen, and surely they don't look conspiratorial at all. Especially not with her voice lowered, too, and if he's looking pensive, she's more than a little worried. "You think she really was in on it? That's... really pitting them against each other, isn't it? Or more pitted, or whatever. Unless it was Az...z's idea and she got Z'i... to make it happen?" "Well, she had to be in on it, right?" D'kan says back, voice dropping as his words pick up in pace. "I mean, she was right there waiting for him. Got the stuff moved pretty quickly, too. Can't do that without coordination," he says before leaning back slightly. Before he can go for more beer, though, he adds, "But how much foreknowledge? Tempted to ask her, actually." Then there is beer, after which, he just stares at his glass for a few more seconds. "It kind of seems like it's one against the other, though. What else could it be? Miscommunication of the most bizarre kind?" "She was?" Telavi breathes, and she wasn't there but she looks ready to believe. "I did hear that they were wearing Glacier badges, and they would have to have gotten them from somewhere, and she did ride for Glacier, didn't she? But does that mean that they were old badges or new badges or she got Glacier riders to give up their jackets, and if so, why would they and who?" If D'kan gets more beer, she gets more beer, and drinks some of it, too. "I don't know," she admits afterward. "Unless maybe Ai...ani had a change of heart and didn't want to say so and had her do it, but that's not her, is it? She'd own it. If you ask her, either one of them really, I hope you'll tell me." D'kan motions toward Telavi as if she just proved a point of his, while she's talking about the Glacier badges. "See? That took planning, and some pretty quick planning at that." He sips from his glass, musing while watching a group of riders head back into the snowy bowl. "All I really know is that it's all pretty sharding weird. But... yeah. I'll let you know," he assures Telavi, grinning slightly before he slumps back in the booth. "I swear, stuff like this makes me consider watchriding somewhere." The grin might indicate he's teasing, but he leaves it there while he starts turning his beer glass in a circle on the table. "Any specific plans in mind after they give us all new knots? Joining up with the weyrlingmaster group, maybe? The dragonhealers? Something else?" "I suppose it's good if people can plan quickly," only Telavi sounds a trifle dubious in this particular case, even though less rationing's a good thing... right? She follows his glance towards the departing riders but then looks away more quickly, her arms crossing atop the table's edge. "Thanks." Letting her know. "Watchriding..." now she's looking back at the brownrider, and maybe she's taking it seriously, maybe she's playing along but either way she answers like it's not just a joke. "Somewhere busy enough that Kaz doesn't get too bored, right? And," the lift of her shoulders is a trifle awkward, not something that normally shows. "I don't, I really don't. Probably I should, but I just haven't, which would make for something else to worry about if I let it. How about you, watchriding aside? Your family?" The last part of Telavi's question has D'kan's mouth tightening slightly, though only for a brief moment. "Even at one of the big Holds, I think Kaz would get bored in a hurry. And... well. I probably don't need to explain how that wouldn't be a good thing for him," he adds with another small, crooked grin. Trashing the barracks comes to mind. "Honestly, I don't think I'd enjoy it, either. I rather like the Weyr life, you know?" He takes another sip of beer, then taps some designs into the condensation on the side of his glass. "I do think, though... I think it's okay to not know what you want to do. Even with the shadowing and stuff, we've still only seen a fraction of what we might do. Haven't really gotten to see what we can do." His tone implies there's a difference between the two. "Not like we can't change our minds a little further down that line, right?" It's brief, and more, he doesn't answer. More than that, he answers the rest, and so Telavi lets it go. "No," she agrees, though the bright humor in her eyes suggests that she can, yes, imagine. Imagine even more than what had happened to the poor barracks, quite probably. "What about Weyr life, D'kan? Tell me it's not the beer or the windburn," but just in case, she drinks. There's color in her cheeks that isn't just the wind, but she's not so buzzed as all that, for all that now she's looking at her glass as though its patterns were tea leaves to read. "I'd like to think you're right, too. It just seems as though some people... well, that we'd be behind. If," but she glances back at D'kan, consideringly, before she continues. If she continues. D'kan grimaces slightly, but nods as if he's following the train of thought. "'Behind' kind of implies it's a race, though," he says, looking across the table at her before he reaches for the pitcher to top off their glasses with what's left of the beer. "I mean, if there's a niche out there for us, then we'll find it. Or it will find us. Just doesn't seem worth worrying about. Not exactly." He stops to take a slow sip of beer. "Plus... maybe stuff will shake down later on." After the chaos finds order, maybe? "As for the Weyr... it's hard to explain." He grins then, rolling one shoulder slightly in a half-hearted shrug. "I like that people can just be. It's not so... judgmental, I guess. Or it doesn't feel that way, politics aside." There's a brief frown after that, but it's gone after he's taken another drink. "Looks like some of the late sweeps are coming in. We should probably free up the booth or something." The deference that comes with weyrling rank? Her replying nod holds altogether too much agreement, though what Telavi says instead now that D'kan's gone on is, "I don't know if the world works that way, but it would be nice." Beyond that, there's more slow-nodded agreement punctuated by not as slow sips. "I hope it stays that way..." A laugh. "Yes, wingsecond." Tela doesn't have to look, but she can smile. "I'll make sure I don't take long to finish." Which means she won't hop up immediately, but then she'll be all for getting out of the way with their belongings, out of people's hair, out of range of perhaps-raised voices to come. |
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