[Log] Update
Who: Gananye, Katric
When: Day 10, Month 8, Turn 2, 7th Pass
Where: Cliffs, Western Islands
What: Katric meets Gananye and catches her up on everything that's been going on on the mainland.
On a Western Island, Dragonweyr Cliffs
The high cliff on the island's northeast side is pocked with small caverns fitted as dragon weyrs. Most are near the ground, ancient offshoots of the massive main cavern at the cliff's base. The scent and sound of the ocean are constant companions here and the view dizzying-- sky and sea and tropical forest blend into a beautiful tapestry just beyond the ledges of the dragonweyrs.
The wet season is marked by heavy grey and black clouds that hang perpetually in the sky. Some days, the covering is so thick that even midday feels like evening. Occasional fat droplets of rain leak down: a promise of the downpour to come.
Contents:
Gananye
Obvious Exits:
Main Settlement (MS)
Gananye
An unusual mismash of features combine to make this young woman's face memorable, though not what many would call 'beautiful', or even 'attractive'. A high forehead and pointed chin give her face an almost horsey look. Combined with an overlarge nose, this might end in complete disaster, were it not for high, almost regal cheekbones and a generous, full mouth. Hazel eyes complete the look, faint worry lines etched in around them despite her relative youth. Dark sorrel hair, lightened here and there by the sun, streams and snarls past her shoulders. The front is usually sloppily braided and pulled casually back to pin up in a bun, letting the rest spill free.
She is dressed in a casual set of work clothes - trousers, overlarge shirt and a man's vest. The clothes are carefully patched and serve to hide any hint of willowy limbs or curves on her tall frame. On her feet are well-mended boots. There is a quiet air of poverty and deliberate sloppiness about her, as though she were making every effort to appear as 'unfeminine' as possible.
Hiking his way through the trees at the edge of the settlement, Katric is dusty and tired-looking when he exits. Evening is settling across the exiles' camp, and the former healer has been missing from camp since early in the morning. He heads on through the camp toward the cliffs, and then he stops, settling down by a big rock to lean up against it and rest.
Gananye has been helping one of the riders clean out his weyr. As a result she's dusty, grungy and tired, drooping a bit at the shoulders as she starts back towards the settlement. The bluerider in question watches her from the mouth of his weyr, a silent sentinel, as she drags her roughly made broom behind her. She stops to look up at the sky, and then lets out a startled and undignified yelp as a large, fat drop lands on her nose. Busy rubbing it off, she doesn't see the 'new guy' loitering at first.
It's the yelp that gets Katric's attention, the man blinking in surprise as he turns his head to look at her. Brows knit, then arch as he reaches to push back his hair and stare. "It's just rain," he tells her dubiously. "You aren't going to /melt/."
Gananye snaps before she looks, "Never said I would, but I didn't expect to /inhale/ it." She mimics his intonation spot on before turning to see who spoke. Seeing Katric she eyes him suspiciously. "You're one of the new guys." Her tone is accusing. "What's your name again?"
"I'm not /that/ new," Katric protests that designation. "I've been here a couple of months now." As though that helps. Vainly, one last try: "I'm not the /newest/. Katric--it's Katric. Who're you?"
Gananye's tone is a trifle sour. "When you've been here more than two turns, I won't think of you as 'one of the new guys', fair enough?" She leans on her broom - likely a bad mistake, it looks as though it could come apart with only the slightest provocation. "I'm Nye. Pleased to meet you. Or," she amends, "pleased as someone can be, under the circumstances."
"Nye," repeats Katric, nodding once as he fixes the name into his head. Then, warily, he eyes her again and asks, "/What/ circumstances?"
Gananye waves a hand airily. "Exile. Hardship. Life on the fringes." She pauses and then says, "You're new, so you did something to get sent all the way out here to the back end of nowhere. Must've been bad, otherwise they'd have put you to work in the mines or something. So forgive me if I'm a little cautious."
"Oh. /Those/ circumstances," says Katric sagely. "I thought that was, like, normal for you people. I'm supposed to be the one who makes disparraging comments about it." Pause. "Nothing /that/ bad. You can't talk--they sent you away, too."
Gananye points out, "Nearly ten turns ago, yeah. So what'd /you/ do?" Who knew that when you were a 'grown up', games of 'you show me yours and I'll show you mine' were still played. "Bet it's worse than what I did."
"Well, nearly three months ago," Katric points out, pointing a finger at his chest. "You say first, then, if you're so sure."
Gananye smiles thinly, "I stood up for the right to work and be recognized on merit." She hooks a thumb into her chest. "And despite what anyone may believe, /I/ didn't kill or hurt anyone." She prompts, "So can you say that?"
"I was trying to save the Reaches," Katric replies, "and I only hurt the people that stood in the way of that."
Gananye's eyebrows arch. "Save the Reaches? Hold? or Weyr?"
"Weyr," answers Katric. "High Reaches Weyr. It's where I'm from."
There's a spark of interest in Nye's eyes. "Oh? So why're you trying to save the weyr? Don't Lexine and G'thon have matters well in hand?" A hint of snide curiousity colors her tone as she crosses her arms reflexively, still leaning on her broom.
"Ganathon," Katric corrects automatically. "And no, they don't. Lexine ran off to Telgar after she got ousted, and Ganathon hasn't been right in the head since Hirth. He brought in Yevide and J'cor--they're /Igenites--and they were bringing down the Weyr. But it's okay, because Derek said she's dead now."
Gananye's brow furrows. Clearly this gossip hasn't reached her. "Ganathon? What? Lexine at Telgar? And Igen riders?" Pause. "Slow down and explain some more?"
"Hirth died," Katric replies simply. "In the first 'Fall. Ganathon made it, but he hasn't been the same since. Held on to the knot, but. Lexine got forced out when it came out that she's fooled around with Odern--you know, Nabol's Lord?" Okay, so maybe he doesn't have the story /entirely/ correct, but. He stares hard at Gananye as he explains animatedly. "That's where she got E'sere. But when that came out, Nabol raised a big fuss--that's why you're having to cover them now, your riders--and Lexine stepped down and went to Telgar when Vasyath rose there. And Ganathon, he brought in this Igenite whore he was fooling around with, and her flight got won by /another/ Igenite--that's Yevide and J'cor, by the way--so we--that's us loyal Reachians--fought them. And that's why Diya left, and how me and Donavon ended up here."
Gananye says slowly, still obviously trying to digest all this information, "Hirth's dead?" A pause and she says, "So who exiled you? And what for? I mean /really/. G'th - Ganathon's always been all about the whole 'fairness except when it comes to violence' thing, so what'd you do?" A careful observer might catch the faintest of emphasis on the /you/ in there.
"Hirth's dead," affirms the former healer. Katric grins still, shrugging immodestly. "Yevide kicked him out--he lives in the lower caverns now. Wasn't him that did it; it was J'cor. /I/ didn't even get a trial, he was so antsy to get me out of there." He preens, but doesn't really answer the question.
Gananye says flatly, "Trials are overrated." She studies him for a few minutes and then shrugs. "Don't know J'cor. Or this Yevide." A pause and she says, "So did you get here /after/ Diya, or before?"
"After," answers Katric. "She left not long after Yevide stole the Weyr out from under her. I stuck around a while, working against her, until they finally caught me."
Gananye says bluntly, "You're not a rider. Why do you care?"
"Because..." Katric hesitates. "It's my home."
Gananye shrugs. "So?" She smirks a bit. "Were you, like, Lexine's secret lover or something? Have a thing for much older women? Or maybe you've got a crush on Diya?" She shakes her head slightly. "You'll figure out that there's easier ways to make a statement than doing something to get you exiled here, where you can't do any good."
"Faranth, no!" Katric looks shocked, gawking at Gananye. "Ugh. She's old enough to be my /grand/mother, I think. E'sere would kill me if I did anything to her. Ugh." He shudders again, nose wrinkling, lip curling. "Anyway," he continues after a moment, when he's recovered from that terrible image, "I have friends back home who are still working, and they'll win out, and then they'll bring me home again."
Gananye snorts. "That's what /I/ said ten turns ago."
"Well, you were wrong," Katric declares bluntly. "But I'm not. I really do have friends back there--powerful ones."
Gananye says doubtfully, "Sure. Well, don't forget the rest of us when they come for you."
Katric hesitates, wincing. "Well, see, I don't know about that. Because you really did do stuff to get exiled, so... I mean, I can see what I can do, but I don't know how well the arguments will fly with my friends," he admits.
Gananye snorts. "/I/ never hurt anybody. And you said you can't admit that. Besides, it's all for one and one for all here. Or else you end up on the fringes of the fringes really quick. and trust me, that's not a nice place to be. You pitch in and help, or you don't make it." She shrugs. "It's that simple." She eyes the frayed shoulderknot. "And if you've had healer training, so much the better."
"Sometimes you have to hurt people for the greater good," Katric insists primly.
Gananye smirks. "Sure you do. But try that here and Derek'll kick your ass." She shrugs. "But you'll find that out soon enough."
Katric shakes his head. "Derek likes me," he notes succintly. "I'm running some experiments on the rabbits up at his cave. In fact, that's where I just was."
Gananye says, completely deadpan, "Well, you must be special then." She muses, "So Reaches is without a Weyrwoman now. Wonder why Diya didn't just go back before Nenuith clutched."
"Sinopa's Weyrwoman now," insists Katric, preening at the compliment, sincere or not. "I mean, I don't know if Citalth's risen yet or not, but. I'm guessing not, because if she had, we'd have a new Weyrleader and I'd be on my way back to the Reaches already." Pause. "And Nenuith couldn't really fly before this. And..." He hesitates, then shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe she didn't want to go back just yet."
Gananye huhs. "Well, hope she rises soon, and your bronzerider friend who put you up to this grabs her. Good thing J'lor brought you over here so threadfall didn't get you while you waited for him to make his move, huh?"
Katric nods slowly. "Yeah, it is," he agrees, grimacing. "Otherwise, Donavon would have been dead for sure, and... me, too, probably."
Gananye smiles slightly. "You're a pretty genial sort, Katric. Me? I'd be pissed as anything if I got caught doing someone else's dirty work. That's gotta be an awful feeling."
Katric knits his brows. "I didn't do it for Donavon, or anybody else. I did it because it was what had to be done," he tells her. "For the greater good."
Gananye says mildly, "Of course you did." She unfolds her arms. "Well, Katric, it was nice to meet you. Hope you settle in well enough - at least for the time you're with us." She seems entirely serious about that. "I think I'm going to get in before the rain hits."
"See you," Katric tells Gananye then, pushing himself to his feet. "Guess I should, too--need to go find Donavon, tell him how the experiments are going, so."