Of records, recopying, reproach, and respect: Nolee & Kaelana discourse, discuss, disdain, disagree
Nolee, Kaelana
The records room is just that: a cavern with a drier atmosphere than most, and one with rows and rows of shelving, most containing bound hide volumes filled with tedious notes in mostly cramped handwriting. At one of the large circular tables sits the weyrwoman, hunched over one of the several hide volumes on the table in front of her. A mild breeze blows through the room where the hide curtain is pulled back to allows some air into the cavern, and the curtain flutters gently.
Pushing the small fold of curtain still blocking the entrance carefully to the side, Kaelana walks quickly into the records room, looking around at the shelves and eventually the weyrwoman with interest. Being out of Nolee's line of vision, she stops beside the nearest shelf. A hand is raised to tap politely against the wood, a soft query given to announce her presense, "Hello?"
Nolee sits upright as she hears the knocking sound, her lined face looking rather weary this particular afternoon. She notices the glowbasket nearby is low, pulls the cloth back to allow more light out, and realizes the sound came from the location of the voice: Kaelana. "Oh, it's you. You must be the one I sent for? Or else the message got lost." She looks back at the book, gestures to the empty seat nearby.
"It's me." Kaelana echos, her tone neutral as she confirms, "and yes, you sent for me." The candidate meekly shuffles over to the offered seat, taking it when she arrives. Crossing her hands on the table, Kae's interest seems strangely intent on the grain of the table, seeming to be waiting for the weyrwoman to speak.
"Thank you for coming," Nolee says, turning to regard the fisher candidate for a long moment before pursing her lips almost sadly. "The weyr's so large, it can be difficult to find people. I appreciate your promptness." She blinks a few times, as much to clear the blear from her eyes as to better see Kaelana. "I've a few cookies, still, if you'd like one. Serious things always go better with cookies." She pushes a small basket with a cloth holding cookies toward Kaelana, leaving it on the table. After a moment, she adds, "Do you know why I sent for you?"
Kaelana raises her gaze, first settling on the basket of cookies, a quirk of her brow before finally settling on the goldrider. To the former comment, a faint nod is given, to the latter a shake of her head and a frown, "No...Thank you." The final query again causes the girl to drop her gaze, moments passing as she considers her response. Speaking softly, eyes still to the table with hair curtaining her face, she responds, "Because I was speaking my mind with no thought to the consequences?"
Nolee waits for the cookie offer to be accepted or declined before the puts the basket back on the far side of the table where she's less likely to elbow it to the floor. "Jays, I do that all the time. And it gets me in trouble about half the time, too." She rises, rubbing at her forehead for a moment, and moves to stand behind the chair, fingers resting across its back. "What is it you believe riders do, Kaelana?" The girl must've made an impression, for Nolee's recalled her name, to the syllable.
"Just seems my mind is a bit more contradictory then you'd expect," Kaelana replies after a pause, the weyrwomans comment seeming to have settled the girls nerves. She sits straight back in the chair, raising her head to meet the eyes of the rooms other occupant before answering the query, "Do you mean what do riders do now? Or-" Pause, "-in the past and future?"
The blonde closes her eyes a moment, shaking her head sadly as though she'd been slapped. Opening her eyes slowly, she squints at Kaelana. "Is it so different, then? What riders have done in the past and what they do now?" Her question is perhaps intended as rhetorical, as she laughs once sharply, leans forward and rests her elbow on the chair, and waits. Perhaps not so rhetorical after all. "Both, then, as the answer should be the same."
Kaelana can only shrug at the reaction, clearly not agreeing at all with the weyrwomans perspective. Responding slowly, enunciating each word clearly, "I don't see why not. The situations are purely exclusive and should be seen as much, wouldn't you think?" There is no perhaps to whether the last comment is rhetorical or not as the candidate continues, "Should, but isn't. Riders in the past risked their lives everyday to flame thread, saving us all from extinction turns ago. Now? I know the risks of the most simple dragonic abilities, but that doesn't make the dragonriders any better then any person on Pern who almost all make their hardest effort to benefit all. All we need to do is pass the knowledge down through the ages until thread falls again, not wallow in our self projected condescension."
Nolee's mouth literally falls open, and remains there for a very long moment. "Clearly your harpers are in need of remediation," she says in a clipped tone. "Voicing treasonous words such as those are not, nor have they ever been acceptable, even behind closed and locked doors." She leans closer, nervousness strong in her features as her hands shake, not with anger, but with fear. "I warn you, for your own safety, that even in fair weather, people have been left on islands at sea for less." Her eyes shift to the records hides, then back. "I've been researching. It's in there. If those are the thoughts you are truly having, you should either learn to hide them, or live far away from dragonkind."
Kaelana actually looks annoyed, though attempting to hide it best she can. A brow is raised as she asks, ever so sweetly, "Of course I could never think of such...what was that word? Oh yes, -treasonous- thoughts on my own? Is it just me, or does this whole weyr seem devoid of logic?" As she leans closer, the girl leans back, furrowing her brow. "It seems when somebody says the truth around here it gets ignored for a tired tradition that has no application for Pern now or in the future. No matter how you go about it, most riders seem to find it in their best interest to put themselves over everybody else."
"I've heard that word, treasonous, used to describe me, when a Craftsmaster was kidnapped, so it has little to do with rank or with riderhood, and I do not use it loosely." Nolee stands back upright again, wringing her hands in an uncharacteristic way...that is, until she notices Kaelana's annoyance. Then she tilts her head, puzzled. "That tired tradition has kept heaps of people alive for generations. And the skills we pass on, we dedicate our lives to so your children's children's child--and a couple more of those--so they have a life worth living on a planet that's not destroyed." Her expression turns woeful, her brown eyes large and wide.
A sigh escapes Kaelana, the annoyance fading slowly from the girls expression. She responds, tone much less hard, just explaining, not hurling her point out, "I didn't say passing on these skills was useless in any sense...If I ever have children, I would not wish future generations to die from incompetance up the line. However, the reliance of a weyr in the interval leaves something to be desired, as does the attitude I seem to experience everyday." She pauses, the next words seeming forced, but genuine, "A few dragonriders have my respect, those who don't seem to believe themselves over everybody else and truly thinking about others on Pern. Sadly, this seems to be a minority." She frowns thoughfully, head tilted in the goldriders direction.
Nolee can't help it: she laughs aloud, an almost tittering. "Jays, if you're this bothered, how did you ever come to agree to Stand?" She lifts one of the hide volumes, takes a few steps toward the shelves, and replaces it carefully. "Fisherfolk, for example, give their work hours to doing their jobs, and sometimes, more than that. In return, here at the weyr, they're fed, sheltered, and provided with ample supplies." She rests her elbow on the shelf, getting her blouse dusty, "Should a fisher, therefore, be polite to everyone they meet, sacrifice all of their free time to someone else, and try to do as it seems you're suggesting a dragonrider do?" She shakes her head. "You wouldn't ask that. Yet those who sacrifice are expected to give even more?"
Kaelana now looks truly confused, leaning back to look at the goldrider in full. She completely ignores the first comment for now, instead wondering aloud, "What? I didn't say or even imply that at all. What I'm saying is that dragonriders right now could be doing better things then endless drills they shouldn't need until threadfall, which won't even happen for another 150 or more turns. We could be lessening our dependance on the holds and halls, making it so the weyr doesn't just curl up and ie if the holders decide to storm our gates 100 turns from now." She halts her comment, seeming to have been bringing up the idea from nothing, "When riders think that everything is delivered to them with no thought or care to the worker who produced it, we get arrogance and where does that get us?" After a moment she does add, "Of course the drills still need to be done, but its the knowledge of them that will save the future, not a fully trained force with nothing to char but painted string."
Nolee waits to hear Kaelana's reply, turning around slowly and unfortunately getting her blouse even more dusty. She blinks several times, then shrugs. "I don't like the drills either. I get hot, and sweaty, which makes my face oily, and Nala usually gets paint all down her sides. In fact, I'd prefer not to do them, either." She takes a few steps toward the table, lifts a cookie, takes a bite, chews, swallows. "And the more people's words now encourage the Holders to it, the sooner that day will come. I hope it never does, but I'm sure we can protect ourselves if it should. Unfortunately, if we don't keep the skills fresh, we forget." She walks toward that open curtain, halting near the source of the breeze. "I think it would serve you best to search these records, this room, for all those that mention a hold, hall, or weyr caught unprepared for Threadfall, so you understand the importance of how we use our time and our resources during Interval. Find them, and recopy them, so they are still fresh for future generations. This in addition to your regular chores."
Kaelana stands from her chair, swaying slight from the prolonged period sitting. She nods acceptance at the added chore, seeming to find no fault in the added load of work, but adds, "People here seem to doubt my perspicacity here, despite the fact that I'm trying to propose a permanent solution to a temporary problem while everybody else goes with the temporary solution to the permenant problem." She coughs at the bit of dust in the air, looking to the weyrwoman with a tilt to her head, seeming to find the whole discussion bothersome.
Enjoying the breeze, Nolee stretches her neck, cramped from being bent over the hides for some time at least. She nods absently, lost enough from the first large vocabulary word that she doesn't pay much attention to the rest of the crisscrossing puzzle, instead smiling blithely and blinking her large brown eyes. "There's supplies in here, usually in the big desk in the back, if you need more. Clean the nibs or they'll clog up and make even more trouble for you. And no sleeping in here; Sulizath's said you had to stay on the beach. Though you got off easy; I'd like to be exiled to the beach sometimes." She scratches her head, then pauses. "If I hear of you doing that stuff again, to any of the other riders, whatchacall it? Telling them what you think, in a way where they feel you were insulting or out of line, I expect to find your candidate's knot left here, on the table, and you can ask Gree-r and Vallrano for it back. Jays, you're embarrassing me and frankly, I don't need them mad. Understood?"
Kaelana only has a grimace as her comment seems to go over the weyrwomans head, a frown evident on her features. She walks slowly in the direction of both the weyrwoman and door, stopping abruptly before the former. "Frankly, I wouldn't dream of spending more time then necessary in this room. Plus the beach is alot nicer then Fadra seems to give it credit for." And for the first time of the evening, Kae lets out a small laugh, quickly stifling it. Though she still can't help but ask, "So Fadra was right...Candidates are the lowest of the low, not even allowed to stand up for themselves. I won't promise anything, but for at least hearing me out, I'll try to try. I'm sure this table'd look nicer with this pretty little knot sitting on it."
Nolee, undaunted, continues to block the doorway by standing in it, though that is more likely because she's noticed some dirt under one fingernail and is busily working at removing it with another than through any desire to be confrontational. "I speak as your Coordinator, which my mum explained to me is like being your mum, cleaning up the messes you leave behind while you're living in those quarters. And whether you know it or not, or realize it or not, your actions affect others." A pause, while she flicks her nails together, studies them, then Kaelana. "Even I report to somebody. There's a hier--what's the word? Hair-archy. We fit in it." She turns to go, pauses, brow furrowed. "I didn't ask for a promise. You should try because you want to, if you want to. If you don't," shrug. "I'll come get it if I have to."
The faint curl at the corner of Kaelana's lips is quite visible, the girl seeming to find a comment humourous. "But, there already is a problem with that. I'm not living -in- those quarters anymore. I'm a social outcast, been shunted away from the more respectable of your next generation. So be the case as it is, how are you responsible for me?" She meets the goldriders gaze levely, the smirk fading to nothing, "Does being under someone imply that Griere can treat you worse then the dust on her shoes at will? If she does, maybe I -don't- want to stick around here. We already know I -don't- want to, maybe a better word for anything a candidate has to do would be -have- to."
"So long as you wear that knot, or have it with you, I suppose," Nolee contritely replies, after a moment of consideration of Kaelana's lip-curly comment. Level in return, Nolee blinks slowly, intently. "Yes, she could. It's my fortune that she's a reasonable person--well, mostly a reasonable person--so she usually doesn't, but she could. The difference is that I -choose- to not give her cause to, most of the time at least. So even if it's miserable sometimes, it's what I make of it. I can make the choice to be miserable all the time to everyone, and to sulk, or I can stop bellyaching and get along."
"Seems fair," Kaelana admits after a long pause, her master plan ruined. "I'm not going to further question the pointless intricities of weyr politics, delving into the unknown realm of trivial pursuits with no promise of gain. Though be that as it may, still seems a bad idea...What happens if by some crazy chance a terrible tyrant ends up winning the flight for Weyrwoman?" The question is entirely rhetorical, the shrug given to leave the question unanswered. "Ah, but there's the problem you see, I'm not miserable at all, quite the opposite in fact."
"I'm not usually," Nolee brightly replies, seizing on the most understandable part of Kaelana's words first while she attempts to comprehend the rest. "Intricate. Yeh, they're certainly that. At the Holds, too, not just here." Then she frowns, then laughs. "We hide? I hope that doesn't happen. Vallrano, he's...well, he's from Telgar," she allows, shifting the topic from Weyrwoman tyrant to WeyrLeader possible, "But he's at least not wherryheaded. Mostly." Clearly she doesn't grasp rhetorical either. "I'm not, either, miserable. Only when doing this stuff. But you'll be helping, which always makes it better." She considers, then frowns. "Jays. Most of the whole evening is gone. I'd best tend to the next things on my slate." A pause. "Thanks for talking to me. Oh--and if you want a good robe, act fast. The box'll be up soon and it'll be a free-for-all then." She pauses another moment, then heads out and on her way.