Logs:I Liked To Hope
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| RL Date: 17 July, 2011 |
| Who: Rhaelyn, Teris |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Teris lets Rhaelyn distract her. |
| Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 28, Month 3, Turn 26 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: B'tal/Mentions |
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| It's just after the lunch hour and a mixture of weyr-brats, exiles and candidates have come out to the solid-ice side of the lake to enjoy some skating and sleding down the fresh snow delivered the previous evening. Rhaelyn is there on the shore, watching the people skating. Her skates lay nearby on a rock with a few stray coats and jackets left by the young people enjoying a swift glide around the patch of ice. Her cheeks are pink and wind-blown indicating that she's been out here for a little while at least. It's Iskiveth that comes first, landing heavily in the snow further up the shore away from where the majority of people are having fun. A habit born of experience, no doubt. Teris isn't far behind considering her approach on two legs, which is slow moving and sort of absent in its destination. She must have had a good head start on the dragon. Though she doesn't seem to really /see/ the antics of those having a good time, she seems to be drawn in that direction. Iskiveth, from her safe distance away, digs at the thinner ice. Possibly more than absolutely necessary to get to the water beneath. Rhaelyn's head tips up at the sound of wingbeats, still not dulled to the sound and sight of a dragon passing overhead. A little shiver runs through her and she pulls her jacket up around her more securely, nuzzling her chin into the soft fur but her eyes stay on the golden dragon who settles down and begins to dig into the water. The exile doesn't match the rider to the dragon right away, nodding her head in greeting once the woman has come up closer. Even someone familiar with her might not completely recognize her at the moment, so she doesn't seem to notice herself. Teris looks like hell, red eyes with dark circles underneath, pale especially in contrast to the chocolate leather coat she wears over a russet red scarf, a matching knit hat on her head. Her feet stop moving nearby, hands tucked into her pockets. There's some focus now to her eyes as she watches the skaters on the ice. "It's amazing, sometimes. How strong ice can be." Interest colors Rhaelyn's expression as she watches the dragonrider as she comes closer. After looking over the woman she shifts her attention back to the ice. "Luck for the skaters that it is too." The little bob of her chin towards the couple who is spinning together in a tight circle, looking very close to ending up on their butts on the ice. "How long does it stay like this? Skate-able I mean." "Indeed," says Teris in a flat sort of tone, eyes still on the skaters as though they're very interesting. Or as though she's waiting for some sort of disaster to befall them all. "Not much longer now, truthfully. It will be spring soon. The ice will stay for some time yet but I wouldn't count on it being safe for this for more than another month or so." She turns her head, then, to consider the girl she's speaking with, but her gaze doesn't linger long. "And then it will be swimming. I think the lake is one of our biggest entertainments." "I'm looking forward to the swimming." Rhaelyn agrees, adding, "The skating is just asking for trouble." She rubs at her hip on one side, remembering. "Do people really dive from up there?" She points towards the cliffs above the lake, with the snow and ice, it seems a dangerious leap. Another look is given Teris, the flat tone unable to disregard, "Are you...alright?" "I don't, honestly, tend to do either," she admits. "It can be... distracting, though." This sort of distraction must be a good thing, by the tone of her voice. Teris lifts her gaze toward the cliffs above the last and she stares at them for a time as she responds, "They do. I even have a couple of times. When I was younger, mind." Which is to say she probably wouldn't be known for doing it now. "I'm..." she starts, hesitates as she tries to find the words and evidently can't find any that are appropriate. Rhaelyn nods her head, agreeing, "I don't think I will be doing it again either. I think I like it from this side of the ice." She points down at her feet, scowling faintly. There are plenty of people who have skating mastered though, whirling and spinning and having a grand time of it. The exile can't help but look just a little jealous at not having that level of skill. "I want to try the diving." This said, she returns to looking at Teris, turning away from the skaters to watch the woman, "You are....?" Maybe a little nudge will lure out the words. "You should." The words are said as Teris pulls her gloved hands out of her pockets to wrap her arms around herself. Rhaelyn's nudge doesn't go unnoticed but it still takes the goldrider a minute or so to come up with something polite. "I'm not well," she finally decides, blue eyes returning to the girl. As though to soften the words, she offers an insincere smile. "I imagine you can relate, somewhat. Losing your home and so many of your people. You are one of the islanders, aren't you?" There's no response for a time, Rhae looking into those blue eyes, calculating the other woman and the dark rings, the lack of coloring. "Ah." It dawns on her at last, what she's getting at, though the inward draw of her eyebrows hints that she's even more curious now. "I mean. Yes. I'm Rhaelyn. We have lost a lot of our people, but as they say, you have to pick yourself up and move on. I've had weeks now with my father gone, and cousins and an aunt." Still she watches the dragonrider, "Did someone you know die?" Thin brows draw together and some of the pain she's been hiding with emotionless is there to sympathize with the girl's losses. "I'm sorry, Rhaelyn," she offers, the feeling behind those simple words genuine. "My brother." Teris' voice catches slightly on the second word and she clears her throat as though that's all that was the problem. "I don't seem to be as good at picking up and moving on as I'd have liked to hope," she says this with another attempt at a smile but it's only there for a moment. "Are you?" Rhaelyn asks, her voice drawing out the question after the woman voices her sorrow on the losses. "Thank you." This is said after some hesitation and Rhae's smile settles on one side of her mouth. "I don't think I adjusted to it as well as some others after father died. I broke a few things." There's no apology for the wreckage though, that's been awhile back now. "How long ago did he pass? Did he have that illness-thing that our kinfolks did?" "I wasn't." She's still Teris enough to admit that. "But I didn't know what it felt like." She does now. Too well. And only with one person. She doesn't seem to care about broken things herself so the goldrider doesn't even notice the missing apology. Or maybe it's just that she's broken plenty herself in the last few days. "No, no. Nothing like that. It was an accident. Three days now." Three days. That seems to surprise Teris. "It feels like it's been so much longer than that." Rhaelyn nods her head, "I see. Well, you were not the only one." Who didn't seem to show empathy to the loss of life with the exiles. Rhae is certainly not holding that against anyone, and certainly not Teris. "It will get easier. You just...have to give yourself time." Yes, that does sound like a quote that was used on her, there's an etching of scorn in it, adding, "Easier said than done." The girl is still not connecting the woman's brother with the keening dragons until just then, her lips tighten before she asks, "Did the dragons respect him? Was that they they cried out?" "I hope it gets easier. I don't know that I can survive feeling like this for too long." For some reason that makes Teris laugh. But it seems based more in irony than humor. "Most things are," easier said than done. At least, evidently, in her experience. "His dragon was well-liked among the others. I'm sure many felt her loss. I don't know how they felt about him. But my Iskiveth seemed to make sure that more felt it than probably necessary." Her weary gaze shifts toward the gold dragon now laying in the snow near the hole she'd dug into the ice. "Oh." Rhaelyn's little murmur is soft as the information sinks in. "His dragon too?" She bites back more questions and gives her head a little shake, it's not the time to rifle off questions to the woman. Her look is for the dragon now, uncomfortable in seeing the beast showing emotions like a person might. "The healer told me that you cannot die from a broken heart." There's a smirk for that bit of information too. "What is your name? And your brother? Who is he?" Not 'was'. "Dragons never survive their riders," Teris offers after a moment as though it's only just dawned on her that someone might not know that. "They can't bear the loss. More sensitive than we are, I guess." Not that her dragon in particular is a shining example of life's finer emotions, she would look off color to someone that has seen her in better spirits. "Teris," she offers her name. "B'tal was his name." There's a shakiness in her voice but it doesn't stop her from talking. "A greenrider. Jeibeth. Probably one of the kinder people you'd ever have the chance to meet." Which is to say, not much like her. Rhaelyn offers a smile at the introduction, and then, "I'm sorry not to have met him. Although, I don't know if he was for or against us exiles. Some of us haven't gone out of our way to make friends." The tone is not missed, in fact Rhae chuckles darkly, "Kind people don't often think the best of me anyway." One shoulder hooks up and then settles back again. Something that the goldrider said before draws her question back a bit, "So, your dragon. Iskiveth." A quick look in the dragon's direction before looking back to Terris, "Can make other dragons feel things?" "He didn't like that we'd taken you away from your island when many of you didn't want to come but he never would have been able to leave anyone to weather the storm that hit it knowing it might prove fatal." The longer Teris speaks, the easier it seems to be. That might have something to do with the way her voice has returned to a safe, emotionless flatness. "He had a way of liking, loving even, people that were as far from kind as you can imagine." One corner of her mouth twitches slightly but she's all too happy to focus more on her dragon than her memories. "In a way, yes. Gold dragons hold a certain..." she gropes for a word and doesn't seem entirely content with what she comes up with, "power over others. They can calm them, command them, in a way the others can't." Rhaelyn nods her head slowly, allowing, "I try to remind myself that many more would have died if we stayed. But what's done is done." Another one of those 'moving on' sort of things, even though her jaw moves to chew out the words before she manages to get her ton to sound civil. "What about you? Do you think we should have stayed?" Everyone has an opinion right? The answer to her question about the dragon makes her smile, "That must be useful. In keeping order. Has she ever been called to do that? Use her...power over others?" "I don't think you should have stayed to die on your island. But I don't think you should have necessarily come here. A hold would have been easier to adjust to. And I see no reason any of you should be standing for this clutch." At least in this state, there's no contempt in her voice where there may have been at one time. Just honesty. Teris almost smiles, focused now as she is on her lifemate. There's obvious affection there. "Not as often as she'd like, I'm sure. And not usually for anything more than an injury in the infirmary. As a whole, the Weyr is more likely to hold Iovniath and Cadejoth's commands than Iskiveth's or Rielsath's. It's a hierarchy that they naturally follow." Rhaelyn chuckles quietly and lifts her shoulders up, helpless. "I think you'd find more of us that would like to go into a hold with what's left of their famlies than those who want to stand for the dragons. But I think something keeps the leaders," exile elders as well as weyrleaders, "From opening a door for that." The exile watches Terris to see if she reacts or responds to that comment, hands tucking deeper into her pockets. "A hierachy, like how we follow our Elders and you your Weyrleaders? Have you ever had to, stop her from using that power?" She smiles, "E'dre told me that it is difficult for him to stop his Wroth from doing things. It seems...dangerious. Not to have more control." There's very little reaction from Teris, truthfully. Just, "K'del can be stubborn once he gets something into his head. Tiriana is not much different in that respect, I suppose." Over in the distance, Iskiveth lifts her head and looks over toward the pair. Within the next few moments she's on her feet and the small gold is making her way closer, wings unconsciously mantled just enough to help her balance. "Yes. I imagine it's why the Weyrs are structured as they are. To follow the natural way of dragons." Then, in regards to Iskiveth herself, "She doesn't often abuse those powers. She respects Iovniath a great deal. It's other things that can be difficult to keep her from doing once she gets them into her head." Although the gold might be small when measured against other golds, the dragon is much larger than Wroth, the dragon she has any familiarity with. Rhaelyn watches Iskiveth without fear, and really without the awe of many hold-girls. "I wonder how long they will continue to be stuborn. The way I understand it, from our classes, the dragons must decide who they feel is worthy of the sands. Do the dragons...care...that their choices are being circumvented by human choice? Or, do I misunderstand?" Cracking a little smile about the gold not abusing her powers, she echoes, "Not often. I see." This indicates she does notice her question, of the rider stopping the dragon from such activity, wasn't really answered. "I'm sorry, I'm asking so many questions. It's...you seem willing to field them. Thank you." "There are many ways to be Searched. Any resident of the Weyr has a right to stand if they wish, exempting those crafters posted here, usually. If someone doesn't wish to stand, a dragon's Search might assure them they stand some sort of chance at Impression, I suppose. Others are Searched from holds and such. Usually only at the word of a dragon." Teris has lots of information that she's willing to offer, it seems. It keeps her from thinking about things more personal to her, after all. It must be a good distraction. "I don't mind," she assures the girl but her attention is on Iskiveth now and she moves toward the dragon when the gold stops a short distance away. A hand reaches to touch that pointy muzzle. Rhaelyn hms, "The book I read, must have been speaking of those at a hold." It seems to make sense with what the goldrider is saying. Still, there's something more she's fishing for, some bit of information, "How, did you impress? Did you ask to stand, or were you picked?" She too is watching the gold, the sharp bits and spikes. "I was Searched. I could have asked. I had stood once before and been left on the sands. I didn't want to do that again so I didn't stand again." The dragon rumbles, sounding almost petulant. "Until Iskiveth, fortunately." Teris turns back to the girl, looking vaguely better for her dragon's closer proximity. "Are you standing?" she wonders in the natural chain of thought that no doubt leads to. "I don't know." Rhaelyn says, though it doesn't sound like a particuarly honest statement. The follow-up is, "There was a...mishap, on the sands." Terris must have heard about the exiles on the sands and the egg that may, or may not, have gotten a knock. Rhae waits to see if the goldrider might put things together. "Oh. No, I remember that. Unfortunate." The last word is added with a small frown. It would probably be difficult for someone like her to not have heard about something like that, even if it hasn't been on her mind in the last few days. "Perhaps if the egg is well, you'll be given the opportunity in the future. Should you want it. Did you?" she asks, curious despite herself. "Do you have a way of testing the egg to see if it's well?" Rhaelyn asks, taking the lack of anger or irritation as an invitation to continue on that topic of wounded eggs. As for if she wants to? She looks away, skyward and then back towards the ice and the skaters going around it. "I do. I keep thinking there is a way to convince a dragon of my worth, but..." she smirks a little and then shrugs, "I'm learning dragons pay little attention to humans that mean nothing to their rider." No real opinion about that either way, it's just the way of things. "Not... really. If it's still growing and hardening, no doubt there's a good chance that it will hatch. But there's no way to know how the dragon within will be until it actually does." Teris still has a hand on Iskiveth's muzzle, the dragon patient with her rider. "They have minds of their own. But it's true, what you say. I don't think it's personal, though-- well, sometimes it is. But not as a rule." A small smirk for that. Rhaelyn smirks a touch right back, "I hardly have my feelings hinging on if dragons -like- me." The exile girl assures the goldrider. Watching the pair, she doesn't have that longing look but almost calculating. "What does she think?" The exile wants to know, watching those ember-like eyes. "She thinks that if it had been her egg, you wouldn't come near any of the others even if Iovniath herself told her otherwise. But," notes Teris, "she can be a bit prone to drama." The dragon snorts and lifts her head up out of reach to look toward those people still on the ice. "She spares little thought for who may or may not be suitable for Search, truthfully. It's not really something they do. Search, I mean." The exile girl's eyebrows lift up, "Really? But what if she was...commanded to? That power you spoke of." Rhaelyn is keen to know, frowning thoughtfully over this possible scenerio. If she's troubled by it, she doesn't show it, "It is interesting, that they seem so dangerous, but we are assured over and over in that class that dragons will never hurt a person. Unless you are gutted by a baby hatchling on the sands. " "I suppose she might put up a fuss. But it's hard to know what would happen in that situation without it actually happening." Teris shakes her head over the whole concept of dragons being dangerous. "They could be if they wanted to be. But there are so few instances of dragons causing purposeful harm to us outside of hatchlings that it's rather a non-issue. If any of them /were/ to be dangerous, I imagine Iskiveth would be at the forefront. And she's never actually harmed anyone but herself." "This is true. Like the what-might-have-beens." Rhaelyn makes a face though, "Still, I am sure it can't be that bad. They are big eggs." At least that's what she's telling herself. As for Iskiveth harming herself? She perks up, "What happened to cause that?" "I wouldn't worry about it too much. The worst that will happen is that you won't be permitted to stand here." Teris doesn't seem to think it's any huge loss the girl should feel. "I doubt they would care if you tried your luck in some other Weyr. Once you can leave here, at least." She shrugs, wrapping her arms around her a little tighter. "There were some incidents mostly when we were weyrlings. Some were just minor strains and cuts. I think the worst was when she decided she wanted to try firestone. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any lasting issues with that." Rhaelyn's eyes twinkle at the 'not permitted' comment but she turns her head away so hopefully the expression isn't noticed enough to remark upon. "Indeed, I'm not as concerned as others might be. There is a new candidate in the doomrs who gets rather tear-ful about being a candidate. I think she has waited her whole life for it." As it's not something in her makeup, she sounds baffled by the emotion required to feel so strongly. "And she...that is, she did have a clutch of eggs that turned out alright. Was it upsetting to think she might not?" See, she listens in classes. Teris rolls her eyes about this emotional candidate. It's not something she has ever really understood herself, perhaps. "It's an often romanticized thing, being a dragonrider. I don't think many people realize that until they're shoveling hatchling shit in the barracks or chopping up some disgusting carcass so their new lifemate doesn't choke to death or running to exhaustion and beyond at the whim of a weyrlingmaster." Iskiveth tilts her head back toward Rhaelyn and her rider briefly, like they might be forgetting that she's sitting right here and can hear everything they're saying. "It was to some extent. I had a harder time dealing with being called a useless idiot than with the idea that she might never clutch. Anyway..." she cuts off that particular conversation and unwraps her arms from around herself to rub her hands together. "I think I'm going to head back inside. Thank you for..." distracting her, "talking." Rhaelyn shakes her head slightly at all the chores that are listed for taking care of the dragon and she makes a face, "Obviously, people," she clearly means the leadership on both sides, "Makes it seem worth the trouble." Moistening her lips she notices the gold dragon swinging her attentino back and frorth and her own eyes say 'what'? Lips pursing as she regards the gold dragon looking at her and then smirks slightly, remembering that dragons aren't just animals. Any other questions she might have are stored away for another day. "I am sure you have others who can...talk, but I'm in the candidate quarters if nothing else." Although the soft chuckle hints that she knows Terris won't come asking for her company specially. Iskiveth is not quite so dull as her rider despite the faded color of her hide. Rhaelyn's look makes her mantle her wings and snap at the air in the girl's direction without actually coming close. Teris gives the gold a sharp look and smacks her on the shoulder as she turns to start heading back toward the caverns. "I will keep you in mind, Rhaelyn." See, she even remembers her name for now. |
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