You're studying people
While Reyce waits outside for Issa, he and Miniyal have a conversation. It goes well ... for a little while.
Southern Bowl
The bowl floor is a broad expanse of gravel and dust, packed flat over decades of dragonweight landing on it. Kept free of vegetation, the only color variation across the vast hollow of the bowl are the dragons, in good weather often found sunning on low ledges or sprawled along the floor itself. The well-worn, charcoal-grey walls of the bowl are nearly vertical, far too steep for even the most adventurous climber to attempt. The rim of the bowl, marked by a rainbow of perching dragons at all times of the day, is topped with massive stone spires that stretch upwards into the blue vault of the sky. There are seven in all, great black fingers of stone that seem, from where you stand, to touch the clouds.
Here the lake dominates the bowl floor, wind-scattered waves lapping at the gravel shore. A few scrawny shrubs to the southeast mark the fenced-in enclosure of the feeding grounds, bordered on its southwestern edge by the lake itself. Following the wall here will lead to the entrance to the weyrling complex and, past that, the stairs that lead to the guest weyr. On the other side of the lake is a vast, yawning tunnel curving upwards slightly, connecting to the long road leading away from High Reaches Weyr. Adjoining the exit is the high arch of the infirmary entrance.
It's a clear summer day and the sky above is a canvas of pristine blue brushed with wisps of white. It's not quite hot but the sun is bright enough to give that illusion.
Dusk is just settling over the weyr, and it's early enough yet that dinner hasn't even begun to be served, when Reyce's footsteps sound down the long exit tunnel from the weyr and he returns from his wanderings, whatever those may be, down the road outside. The Bendenite does not seem in any great hurry on his return, pausing once outside the infirmary door and again when he passes the weyrling complex. He dares, however, come no closer than ten feet to the latter's entrance, squinting as he peers inside.
Dinnertime. A requirement these days for someone who had grown accustomed to dining in private and without too much conversation. Except for those lovely times when dinner guests were involved. The former near hermit, current weyrling that is Miniyal appears at the entrance to the weyrling complex. She's in something of a hurry, a book clutched in one hand, and it's not until her brain points out the figure standing nearby that she comes to a stop and blinks. Peering at Reyce she takes a step backwards and then stops. "Good evening."
Reyce, former dinner guest, also yields a step backwards when Miniyal makes her (apparently hurried) appearance, though it's hardly necessary to make room for her, given the space he's already left in front of the door. Clearing his throat, he gives her a nod of greeting to which he appends a "Hey" when she addresses him, his quiet voice raised so it will carry through the distance. His eyes shift down to the book she carries before returning to her face. "You know if Issa's done in there?" He shrugs, acknowledging the likelihood that Miniyal is not, in fact, bound to know the details of Issa's weyrling schedule.
Miniyal's fingers tighten around her book when it is looked at. Thick, professionally bound, it has a title along the spine that cannot be read due to her hand holding it. "Oh. She's going to be a minute." Looking over her shoulder she wrinkles her nose. "There was some sort of. . .thing. I don't know. A couple of them got caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing. But I don't think it'll take too much longer. I believe D'ven will be stepping in shortly and likely letting her go."
Her book is going to get looked at again, only because she's so protective of it. The sudden tightening of fingers catches Reyce's peripheral attention and he blinks down at her hand, then quickly lifts his chin (and his eyes with it) to leave her private reading alone. "Okay," he says, absorbing her answer as he shifts his weight back, settling in with one leg comfortably cocked while he waits. "Thanks." He digs his hands into his pockets and lets his gaze flick to the side, only to remember his manners (what exists of them) and return his attention to the weyrling before him. He pulls in a breath, as though to speak, but tosses it off with a shake of his head and a helpless shrug, jouncing his cocked leg antsily.
There is, likely, nothing to the book at all. But that doesn't stop Miniyal from continuing to hold onto it tightly. She doesn't say anything about it or look down at it, but she does hold it closer like it is, in some way, precious to her. "You're welcome." Manners demand such words after someone says thanks and then she too falls silent. Looking left and then right, perhaps for someone else to wander by she sees no one and so doesn't hurry off like she might have. Instead it looks like she is willing to stand here, awkwardly, while he waits. Casting about for something to say she finally loosens her grip on her book and holds it up. "Umm. Astronomy. I saw you were looking and all. It was a gift."
Reyce's eyebrows go up when she identifies the subject of her book, but just as quickly they drop (and his eyes with them, which seems to be a trend for his behavior tonight) to the ground and he puffs a very quiet snort, whose amusement seems somehow internally directed. "Yeah?" This as his eyes come back up, although his face remains tilted downwards. His leg gives another jouncing movement before he stills it with what must be a conscious effort, to judge by the visible tightening of his muscles. "It's a -" his words slow into silence, and then he casts them off with a shake of his head. A wry twist finds its way to his lips. "Doesn't matter. Don't have to stand here, you're going to dinner or something. Won't mind." His head cants towards the living caverns, to indicate perhaps more clearly just what he won't mind.
"Oh. Umm. Yes. Is that- well, it's got maps." Sheepishly explained as Miniyal ducks her own head and is likely wishing for looser hair to hide behind right now. "Astronomy I mean." In case he didn't get it. "Although I don't have, well, I mean, it's harder to keep the star charts with me right now and all, but the book's small enough." It being a book even if it is a thick one. Here she trails off and shifts her weight from one foot to the other as she fights with the desire to flee. "Dinner. Right, well, I was going there eventually. I mean, it's not hurting anything my standing here." Yet. It could be and there's some small indication she's aware of this in her tone. It could easily be bad. "So, umm. Right. If I'm not bothering you I'll just wait here. I promised someone I'd sit by them anyway and it's easier to wait here than try to save a seat."
"Sure," Reyce allows, freeing a hand from his pockets so he can flick it permissively at the ground she's standing on. In other words, it doesn't bother him; nor does his tone allow for whatever ominous predictions she makes for their conversation. Perhaps this is because he has found a safe ground, of sorts, in that book she seems so interested in, and he gives his chin a small jerk towards it to indicate that he is shifting his attention back that way. "You read it for the maps?" he wonders, jumpstarting that train of thought again.
Miniyal shifts her book from one hand to the other as she shakes her head. "No. No, there's not many in here. It's all. . .stuff. Terms and theories and references and stuff. I'll be honest, some of it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But it's interesting and I'm learning. It helps with the charts I have. I'm collecting them." The safe topic is taken and it is clung to. Safety! "I hadn't thought to get something this indepth right at first, but I'm making progress. I guess I don't need to know it all, but it's very interesting. Even if I am not entirely sure the author knows what he is talking about either. Some of his theories seem very out there."
Reyce puffs another breath of laughter for her comment about the author's possible ignorance, his amusement this time allowed to whisk outwards rather than being self-contained. "Might not. Lot of them are full of shit. Think, though, it's stuff that seems simple tends to be wrong. Seems so obvious no one bothers testing it. More complicated it is the more people doubt it, try to find out where it's wrong." He shrugs again but, while he does, tilts his shoulders low, adopting an angle from which he can see the title and author of her book. A shake of his head as he straightens indicates that he doesn't recognize either name.
For his efforts, she releases the book somewhat and makes sure he can read what he is looking for. "I think it's one of the more obscure texts buried at Harper. My friend has a sense of humor about things." Miniyal doesn't smile at this, but she shakes her head and allows the amusement to show in her tone. That is good enough, no need to smile as well. "I'm keeping a list of things that seem to make no sense one way or the other. When I am done with this I will seek out works that might explain it. When I have time." Her nose wrinkles at this and a look is cast over her shoulder towards all that takes up all her of her valuable research time right now.
Reyce tugs his chin into his chest, watching from a lowered angle as he traces Miniyal's glance back toward the weyrling complex. "You don't like it?" he wonders, and the safe topic goes (at least momentarily) by the wayside. As their conversation has progressed, he's allowed his voice to edge ever closer to its normal volume, and were it not for the silence in the bowl right now his softly spoken question might not carry to her ears at all.
Miniyal laughs quietly, a brief sound that dies away mere moments after coming into existence. "I hardly think anyone likes having every second of every day planned out for them. Especially those used to doing as they will when they will. So, it is an adjustment. However, I have several projects to research and it is affording me an opportunity for up close observation I might not have otherwise received. Which makes up, somewhat, for everything else." It is an entirely impersonal sort of answer that manages to not take into account her own situation. Huzzah. She clings to safety in conversation as hard as she can. The same way she tightens her grip on her book once more and looks down upon it.
Reyce concedes that a weyrling's schedule isn't very attractive with a snort and an easy twitch of his shoulders, but his gaze lingers beyond her for a moment more, squinting again as he continues to peer at the complex. "Thought you didn't have time," is his answer, still somewhat distracted, given just before he draws himself back from his investigations and looks directly at Miniyal again.
"I do not have time for things that are not related to what takes up all of my time." Miniyal explains this with a shrug of her own shoulders. "However, I am more than capable of doing more than one thing at a time so I can take care of my observations while doing whatever it is I must be doing at that moment. Those observations just have to be written down at a later time is all. Which is best anyway when observing people as they tend to get somewhat nervous when you're sitting there writing and all." Frowning thoughtfully she shifts her weight from one foot to the other and resists the urge to look over her shoulder every time he looks behind her.
Affected by her nervous fidgeting, perhaps, Reyce shifts his own weight to the other leg, now resting a different one at a lifted angle. He does at least stop looking over her shoulder, for now. Although having him squint at her, now, in evident puzzlement may not be that much of an improvement. "You're studying people," he concludes, ever so intelligent since the Caucus got at him.
Miniyal blinks a few times and the look she gives Reyce is as neutral as she can make it while likely thinking the boy's sure slow. "Well, yes," she answers with a little nod of her head. "It's. . .I mean, well, considering who impressed and to what. It's something that needs to be observed and recorded. Generations from now people will only have what those of us here and now take down. Someone has to do it and since I am forced to be around them every day it makes sense. After all, when we graduate it will no longer be so easy to keep track of things."
"What you take down," he corrects her, lifting the hand in his pocket to gesture at her through the cloth. He watches her for a moment, his head tilted to the same side he's leaned his weight on, before drawing in a sniff and correcting his posture. "Would think Weyrlingmaster does that well enough himself." He shuffles back about half a step, watching his boots scuff backwards across the bowl's stone floor.
"I can be as impartial as the next person when I need to be," Miniyal starts with a frown. But she cuts herself with a quiet sigh and a shake of her head. "I mean, I am trying to be impartial and just record what is observed. And, I don't think he has the same reason behind what he takes down. He's not, I mean he doesn't seem, all that interested in preserving anything for history. Besides, he's much busier and, because of his position, is not going to witness everything that I might." And is not as good at being nosy. Which need not be said. The book switches hands again, it does look heavy enough to be awkward in constant holding.
Reyce blinks back up at her when she starts that response, taking in her frown with a quick flick of his eyes across her brow. His own expression remains mute, simply absorbing what she says. "You want to be remembered for that," he concludes next, his eyes following the book as it transfers between her hands. Once it's settled, he draws himself back together with a sniff and looks up.
Miniyal lapses into silence other than the soft kicking of one foot against the ground. The book remains in the hand it is in and the other hand rises to absently smooth down hair that is tidily put back already. With nothing else to do with her hand she places it in her pocket. "I want to be remembered." In case he thought she might not answer, she does. It just takes her a minute or so to come up with the words and even then they barely travel to him being spoken so softly. "I have other ideas. Other, more important things, I want to be remembered for. But this is important too. It needs to be done. Someone has to do it."
Softly spoken words seem to be the tone for this conversation. Reyce does not seem surprised by the fact that she answers, but that her voice drops - and sounds so sincere, when it does - has his eyes squinted again. "Your thing," he concludes on a puffed out breath of air, shuffling his hands down in his pocket. "I'm saying, though, you want to be remembered for /that/." The emphasis is a light one, but to clarify it he jerks his chin beyond her, at that mysterious weyrling complex and all the research it contains.
"It's not a bad thing to be remembered for. It's. . .important. It's new. It makes people think." Miniyal looks over her shoulder and then back towards the conversation. Although she doesn't quite look at the one she converses with. Easier to sort of look past him without quite seeing. "Anything that makes people see the world differently, reevaluate the way they consider things to be true. . .yes. I want to be remembered as having some small part in that."
Reyce follows that escaping eye contact for a moment, but when it settles over his shoulder he gives up with a small snort, shaking his head and letting his own gaze wander while he listens. "Full of it, you know," he says, his tones now restored to their usual soft level. His eyes flick back to her for the duration of that statement, waiting to see if she'll look at him again, and if not, waiting just a moment before they wander up the sides of the bowl.
Miniyal's eyes are pulled back with those words and she blinks several times before she looks, ever so briefly, at him. Brief and sparing, but eye contact it is before her gaze slides away again. "Exactly how so this time?" If she's learned anything it's how to better internalize things so she can appear calm and unbothered in conversation. So her expression settles into polite curiosity as she awaits an answer.
Reyce tugs his hands up out of his pockets, crosses them over his chest. Since eye contact was given, his gaze remains on her, and he considers his answer a moment or two before answering it. "Keep saying what you do's important, like you're the one decides that. Said, you're going to change how people see the world. See the truth. Just spying on your classmates. Seems a shit thing to do." His lip tugs briefly upwards, showing a corner of his teeth in a self-aware smile that approaches a grimace. The irony of him proclaiming 'a shit thing to do,' if one judges by that expression, has not been lost on him.
"It's hardly spying if people know what you are doing. I'm with them pretty much all day every day. It's hard /not/ to see what is going on, you know." Miniyal rolls her eyes and glances down at the ground a moment. "If I were /spying/ on people no one would be aware of what I was doing right now." A shake of her head and he gets another brief glance, gaze drifting away as quickly as it comes. "Why should I let someone else determine what is important about me? Why should I wait for someone else to bother to notice anything I do? I do decide if what I do is important or not. Maybe no one else thinks so, but to me it is. I can't-" Cutting herself off she's forced to be quiet a moment before she gets too carried away. A moment to settle her thoughts and slow her words down is required. "I cannot make people change, no. But I can show them the changes that exist everywhere. If they want to see those changes then good. If not, it does not negate what I have done."
"You privilege yourself," Reyce returns, making a sucking sound between his teeth and tongue as he helps that strange grimacing expression he made settle back into neutrality. It had been fading anyway, but rallied when he used the word 'privilege.' "You're the one watching, writing down what you think of them in a way they don't know. It's spying," he affirms for her, dully lifting his brows. "And it's putting yourself first. Other weyrlings have the same time you've got, probably more, and you want a record for history, they're the ones know what they're going through, nothing says they can't write it themselves but you want to spy. And you want to feel self-righteous about it, too." His teeth start to show again, but he pulls his lips down with a flick of his tongue and shakes his head instead.
Miniyal maintains, at whatever expense it might be, her calm. "I'm not stopping them from doing that. However, will everyone think of that? No. So, yes, I watch them. And I make note of anything that I feel might be of interest to history. Done by anyone. Which is different how from every other day of my life? Not at all. I've been working on my historical projects since the beginning of the Pass. I do not claim to be the only one or the best. But I do claim to be doing the best I can. You can label it however you want, there's nothing stopping you from doing just that." This time when she stops it's for less time, a brief pause to marshal her thoughts and take a breath. "I've stopped expecting anyone to understand or approve of what it is I do. As for putting myself first, well, I suppose if anyone would recognize that it would be you."
Reyce cannot hide the teeth this time, and they show when he lets out a brief huff of a laugh at her terminating comment. "Yeah," he agrees, and makes nothing more of it. "But you could suggest it to them," he says, dropping back into his original point. "And you don't. Could try to find some way of doing things doesn't act like they're apart from you, something you spy on, but you don't. Do it for history, don't care how it affects the people around you - saying they don't understand's the same as saying you don't give a shit, do what you want. 'Cause you're privileged, right? Only you understand." Up till this point he's been watching her but now, with a grunt, he turns his head sideways, staring back out the weyr tunnel he came through so long ago. "Last thing anyone needs's a pissed gold weyrling," he mutters. "I'm stopping there. You do what you want."
"You're right. I could. But it doesn't mean as much if they don't think of it themselves." Miniyal's mind is rather made up here. She'll fight, quietly and calmly, without giving an inch. "It's not my place to tell people-I mean, it's not. I can't tell people what to do. What is important to them. It's up to them. I do not pry. I do not poke. I do not treat them as if they are just a- a research subject." Now her chin tilts up and she looks him straight on. "Plenty of people know what I am doing. It's not spying. And they're quite able to bring it up to those they believe I am feeling all privileged over." Stepping to one side she pulls her hand from her pocket and waves it back behind her towards the weyrling complex. "Go on then. Warn them about me. I'm sure you'll find most of them are already quite wary considering what's been said in the past. I'm not stopping you from stepping up to defend the people you feel are being taken advantage of. Try it, it'd be a novel thing for you I believe. Looking out for someone else."
Reyce lifts his chin while he listens to her, but he does not seek eye contact anymore and continues to stare down the tunnel. He has, at least, his ear turned to her, clearly listening. His eyelids begin to sink down, halfway covering his eyes, so it's hard to tell even when he does look - after she's finished speaking - since it's a sidelong glance, obscured by shadow. "You do what you want," is all he offers, blandly.
Miniyal smiles and it is a brief flickering thing with some amusement in it. "I do. No one else will do it for me." A glance over her shoulder and a shrug. "Well, I've been stood up it seems. I'll just be on my way. Always a pleasure to see you, Reyce. A delightful conversation. Enjoy your evening." Trading her book from one hand to the other she makes her off to find dinner.
Southern Bowl
The bowl floor is a broad expanse of gravel and dust, packed flat over decades of dragonweight landing on it. Kept free of vegetation, the only color variation across the vast hollow of the bowl are the dragons, in good weather often found sunning on low ledges or sprawled along the floor itself. The well-worn, charcoal-grey walls of the bowl are nearly vertical, far too steep for even the most adventurous climber to attempt. The rim of the bowl, marked by a rainbow of perching dragons at all times of the day, is topped with massive stone spires that stretch upwards into the blue vault of the sky. There are seven in all, great black fingers of stone that seem, from where you stand, to touch the clouds.
Here the lake dominates the bowl floor, wind-scattered waves lapping at the gravel shore. A few scrawny shrubs to the southeast mark the fenced-in enclosure of the feeding grounds, bordered on its southwestern edge by the lake itself. Following the wall here will lead to the entrance to the weyrling complex and, past that, the stairs that lead to the guest weyr. On the other side of the lake is a vast, yawning tunnel curving upwards slightly, connecting to the long road leading away from High Reaches Weyr. Adjoining the exit is the high arch of the infirmary entrance.
It's a clear summer day and the sky above is a canvas of pristine blue brushed with wisps of white. It's not quite hot but the sun is bright enough to give that illusion.
Dusk is just settling over the weyr, and it's early enough yet that dinner hasn't even begun to be served, when Reyce's footsteps sound down the long exit tunnel from the weyr and he returns from his wanderings, whatever those may be, down the road outside. The Bendenite does not seem in any great hurry on his return, pausing once outside the infirmary door and again when he passes the weyrling complex. He dares, however, come no closer than ten feet to the latter's entrance, squinting as he peers inside.
Dinnertime. A requirement these days for someone who had grown accustomed to dining in private and without too much conversation. Except for those lovely times when dinner guests were involved. The former near hermit, current weyrling that is Miniyal appears at the entrance to the weyrling complex. She's in something of a hurry, a book clutched in one hand, and it's not until her brain points out the figure standing nearby that she comes to a stop and blinks. Peering at Reyce she takes a step backwards and then stops. "Good evening."
Reyce, former dinner guest, also yields a step backwards when Miniyal makes her (apparently hurried) appearance, though it's hardly necessary to make room for her, given the space he's already left in front of the door. Clearing his throat, he gives her a nod of greeting to which he appends a "Hey" when she addresses him, his quiet voice raised so it will carry through the distance. His eyes shift down to the book she carries before returning to her face. "You know if Issa's done in there?" He shrugs, acknowledging the likelihood that Miniyal is not, in fact, bound to know the details of Issa's weyrling schedule.
Miniyal's fingers tighten around her book when it is looked at. Thick, professionally bound, it has a title along the spine that cannot be read due to her hand holding it. "Oh. She's going to be a minute." Looking over her shoulder she wrinkles her nose. "There was some sort of. . .thing. I don't know. A couple of them got caught doing something they shouldn't have been doing. But I don't think it'll take too much longer. I believe D'ven will be stepping in shortly and likely letting her go."
Her book is going to get looked at again, only because she's so protective of it. The sudden tightening of fingers catches Reyce's peripheral attention and he blinks down at her hand, then quickly lifts his chin (and his eyes with it) to leave her private reading alone. "Okay," he says, absorbing her answer as he shifts his weight back, settling in with one leg comfortably cocked while he waits. "Thanks." He digs his hands into his pockets and lets his gaze flick to the side, only to remember his manners (what exists of them) and return his attention to the weyrling before him. He pulls in a breath, as though to speak, but tosses it off with a shake of his head and a helpless shrug, jouncing his cocked leg antsily.
There is, likely, nothing to the book at all. But that doesn't stop Miniyal from continuing to hold onto it tightly. She doesn't say anything about it or look down at it, but she does hold it closer like it is, in some way, precious to her. "You're welcome." Manners demand such words after someone says thanks and then she too falls silent. Looking left and then right, perhaps for someone else to wander by she sees no one and so doesn't hurry off like she might have. Instead it looks like she is willing to stand here, awkwardly, while he waits. Casting about for something to say she finally loosens her grip on her book and holds it up. "Umm. Astronomy. I saw you were looking and all. It was a gift."
Reyce's eyebrows go up when she identifies the subject of her book, but just as quickly they drop (and his eyes with them, which seems to be a trend for his behavior tonight) to the ground and he puffs a very quiet snort, whose amusement seems somehow internally directed. "Yeah?" This as his eyes come back up, although his face remains tilted downwards. His leg gives another jouncing movement before he stills it with what must be a conscious effort, to judge by the visible tightening of his muscles. "It's a -" his words slow into silence, and then he casts them off with a shake of his head. A wry twist finds its way to his lips. "Doesn't matter. Don't have to stand here, you're going to dinner or something. Won't mind." His head cants towards the living caverns, to indicate perhaps more clearly just what he won't mind.
"Oh. Umm. Yes. Is that- well, it's got maps." Sheepishly explained as Miniyal ducks her own head and is likely wishing for looser hair to hide behind right now. "Astronomy I mean." In case he didn't get it. "Although I don't have, well, I mean, it's harder to keep the star charts with me right now and all, but the book's small enough." It being a book even if it is a thick one. Here she trails off and shifts her weight from one foot to the other as she fights with the desire to flee. "Dinner. Right, well, I was going there eventually. I mean, it's not hurting anything my standing here." Yet. It could be and there's some small indication she's aware of this in her tone. It could easily be bad. "So, umm. Right. If I'm not bothering you I'll just wait here. I promised someone I'd sit by them anyway and it's easier to wait here than try to save a seat."
"Sure," Reyce allows, freeing a hand from his pockets so he can flick it permissively at the ground she's standing on. In other words, it doesn't bother him; nor does his tone allow for whatever ominous predictions she makes for their conversation. Perhaps this is because he has found a safe ground, of sorts, in that book she seems so interested in, and he gives his chin a small jerk towards it to indicate that he is shifting his attention back that way. "You read it for the maps?" he wonders, jumpstarting that train of thought again.
Miniyal shifts her book from one hand to the other as she shakes her head. "No. No, there's not many in here. It's all. . .stuff. Terms and theories and references and stuff. I'll be honest, some of it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But it's interesting and I'm learning. It helps with the charts I have. I'm collecting them." The safe topic is taken and it is clung to. Safety! "I hadn't thought to get something this indepth right at first, but I'm making progress. I guess I don't need to know it all, but it's very interesting. Even if I am not entirely sure the author knows what he is talking about either. Some of his theories seem very out there."
Reyce puffs another breath of laughter for her comment about the author's possible ignorance, his amusement this time allowed to whisk outwards rather than being self-contained. "Might not. Lot of them are full of shit. Think, though, it's stuff that seems simple tends to be wrong. Seems so obvious no one bothers testing it. More complicated it is the more people doubt it, try to find out where it's wrong." He shrugs again but, while he does, tilts his shoulders low, adopting an angle from which he can see the title and author of her book. A shake of his head as he straightens indicates that he doesn't recognize either name.
For his efforts, she releases the book somewhat and makes sure he can read what he is looking for. "I think it's one of the more obscure texts buried at Harper. My friend has a sense of humor about things." Miniyal doesn't smile at this, but she shakes her head and allows the amusement to show in her tone. That is good enough, no need to smile as well. "I'm keeping a list of things that seem to make no sense one way or the other. When I am done with this I will seek out works that might explain it. When I have time." Her nose wrinkles at this and a look is cast over her shoulder towards all that takes up all her of her valuable research time right now.
Reyce tugs his chin into his chest, watching from a lowered angle as he traces Miniyal's glance back toward the weyrling complex. "You don't like it?" he wonders, and the safe topic goes (at least momentarily) by the wayside. As their conversation has progressed, he's allowed his voice to edge ever closer to its normal volume, and were it not for the silence in the bowl right now his softly spoken question might not carry to her ears at all.
Miniyal laughs quietly, a brief sound that dies away mere moments after coming into existence. "I hardly think anyone likes having every second of every day planned out for them. Especially those used to doing as they will when they will. So, it is an adjustment. However, I have several projects to research and it is affording me an opportunity for up close observation I might not have otherwise received. Which makes up, somewhat, for everything else." It is an entirely impersonal sort of answer that manages to not take into account her own situation. Huzzah. She clings to safety in conversation as hard as she can. The same way she tightens her grip on her book once more and looks down upon it.
Reyce concedes that a weyrling's schedule isn't very attractive with a snort and an easy twitch of his shoulders, but his gaze lingers beyond her for a moment more, squinting again as he continues to peer at the complex. "Thought you didn't have time," is his answer, still somewhat distracted, given just before he draws himself back from his investigations and looks directly at Miniyal again.
"I do not have time for things that are not related to what takes up all of my time." Miniyal explains this with a shrug of her own shoulders. "However, I am more than capable of doing more than one thing at a time so I can take care of my observations while doing whatever it is I must be doing at that moment. Those observations just have to be written down at a later time is all. Which is best anyway when observing people as they tend to get somewhat nervous when you're sitting there writing and all." Frowning thoughtfully she shifts her weight from one foot to the other and resists the urge to look over her shoulder every time he looks behind her.
Affected by her nervous fidgeting, perhaps, Reyce shifts his own weight to the other leg, now resting a different one at a lifted angle. He does at least stop looking over her shoulder, for now. Although having him squint at her, now, in evident puzzlement may not be that much of an improvement. "You're studying people," he concludes, ever so intelligent since the Caucus got at him.
Miniyal blinks a few times and the look she gives Reyce is as neutral as she can make it while likely thinking the boy's sure slow. "Well, yes," she answers with a little nod of her head. "It's. . .I mean, well, considering who impressed and to what. It's something that needs to be observed and recorded. Generations from now people will only have what those of us here and now take down. Someone has to do it and since I am forced to be around them every day it makes sense. After all, when we graduate it will no longer be so easy to keep track of things."
"What you take down," he corrects her, lifting the hand in his pocket to gesture at her through the cloth. He watches her for a moment, his head tilted to the same side he's leaned his weight on, before drawing in a sniff and correcting his posture. "Would think Weyrlingmaster does that well enough himself." He shuffles back about half a step, watching his boots scuff backwards across the bowl's stone floor.
"I can be as impartial as the next person when I need to be," Miniyal starts with a frown. But she cuts herself with a quiet sigh and a shake of her head. "I mean, I am trying to be impartial and just record what is observed. And, I don't think he has the same reason behind what he takes down. He's not, I mean he doesn't seem, all that interested in preserving anything for history. Besides, he's much busier and, because of his position, is not going to witness everything that I might." And is not as good at being nosy. Which need not be said. The book switches hands again, it does look heavy enough to be awkward in constant holding.
Reyce blinks back up at her when she starts that response, taking in her frown with a quick flick of his eyes across her brow. His own expression remains mute, simply absorbing what she says. "You want to be remembered for that," he concludes next, his eyes following the book as it transfers between her hands. Once it's settled, he draws himself back together with a sniff and looks up.
Miniyal lapses into silence other than the soft kicking of one foot against the ground. The book remains in the hand it is in and the other hand rises to absently smooth down hair that is tidily put back already. With nothing else to do with her hand she places it in her pocket. "I want to be remembered." In case he thought she might not answer, she does. It just takes her a minute or so to come up with the words and even then they barely travel to him being spoken so softly. "I have other ideas. Other, more important things, I want to be remembered for. But this is important too. It needs to be done. Someone has to do it."
Softly spoken words seem to be the tone for this conversation. Reyce does not seem surprised by the fact that she answers, but that her voice drops - and sounds so sincere, when it does - has his eyes squinted again. "Your thing," he concludes on a puffed out breath of air, shuffling his hands down in his pocket. "I'm saying, though, you want to be remembered for /that/." The emphasis is a light one, but to clarify it he jerks his chin beyond her, at that mysterious weyrling complex and all the research it contains.
"It's not a bad thing to be remembered for. It's. . .important. It's new. It makes people think." Miniyal looks over her shoulder and then back towards the conversation. Although she doesn't quite look at the one she converses with. Easier to sort of look past him without quite seeing. "Anything that makes people see the world differently, reevaluate the way they consider things to be true. . .yes. I want to be remembered as having some small part in that."
Reyce follows that escaping eye contact for a moment, but when it settles over his shoulder he gives up with a small snort, shaking his head and letting his own gaze wander while he listens. "Full of it, you know," he says, his tones now restored to their usual soft level. His eyes flick back to her for the duration of that statement, waiting to see if she'll look at him again, and if not, waiting just a moment before they wander up the sides of the bowl.
Miniyal's eyes are pulled back with those words and she blinks several times before she looks, ever so briefly, at him. Brief and sparing, but eye contact it is before her gaze slides away again. "Exactly how so this time?" If she's learned anything it's how to better internalize things so she can appear calm and unbothered in conversation. So her expression settles into polite curiosity as she awaits an answer.
Reyce tugs his hands up out of his pockets, crosses them over his chest. Since eye contact was given, his gaze remains on her, and he considers his answer a moment or two before answering it. "Keep saying what you do's important, like you're the one decides that. Said, you're going to change how people see the world. See the truth. Just spying on your classmates. Seems a shit thing to do." His lip tugs briefly upwards, showing a corner of his teeth in a self-aware smile that approaches a grimace. The irony of him proclaiming 'a shit thing to do,' if one judges by that expression, has not been lost on him.
"It's hardly spying if people know what you are doing. I'm with them pretty much all day every day. It's hard /not/ to see what is going on, you know." Miniyal rolls her eyes and glances down at the ground a moment. "If I were /spying/ on people no one would be aware of what I was doing right now." A shake of her head and he gets another brief glance, gaze drifting away as quickly as it comes. "Why should I let someone else determine what is important about me? Why should I wait for someone else to bother to notice anything I do? I do decide if what I do is important or not. Maybe no one else thinks so, but to me it is. I can't-" Cutting herself off she's forced to be quiet a moment before she gets too carried away. A moment to settle her thoughts and slow her words down is required. "I cannot make people change, no. But I can show them the changes that exist everywhere. If they want to see those changes then good. If not, it does not negate what I have done."
"You privilege yourself," Reyce returns, making a sucking sound between his teeth and tongue as he helps that strange grimacing expression he made settle back into neutrality. It had been fading anyway, but rallied when he used the word 'privilege.' "You're the one watching, writing down what you think of them in a way they don't know. It's spying," he affirms for her, dully lifting his brows. "And it's putting yourself first. Other weyrlings have the same time you've got, probably more, and you want a record for history, they're the ones know what they're going through, nothing says they can't write it themselves but you want to spy. And you want to feel self-righteous about it, too." His teeth start to show again, but he pulls his lips down with a flick of his tongue and shakes his head instead.
Miniyal maintains, at whatever expense it might be, her calm. "I'm not stopping them from doing that. However, will everyone think of that? No. So, yes, I watch them. And I make note of anything that I feel might be of interest to history. Done by anyone. Which is different how from every other day of my life? Not at all. I've been working on my historical projects since the beginning of the Pass. I do not claim to be the only one or the best. But I do claim to be doing the best I can. You can label it however you want, there's nothing stopping you from doing just that." This time when she stops it's for less time, a brief pause to marshal her thoughts and take a breath. "I've stopped expecting anyone to understand or approve of what it is I do. As for putting myself first, well, I suppose if anyone would recognize that it would be you."
Reyce cannot hide the teeth this time, and they show when he lets out a brief huff of a laugh at her terminating comment. "Yeah," he agrees, and makes nothing more of it. "But you could suggest it to them," he says, dropping back into his original point. "And you don't. Could try to find some way of doing things doesn't act like they're apart from you, something you spy on, but you don't. Do it for history, don't care how it affects the people around you - saying they don't understand's the same as saying you don't give a shit, do what you want. 'Cause you're privileged, right? Only you understand." Up till this point he's been watching her but now, with a grunt, he turns his head sideways, staring back out the weyr tunnel he came through so long ago. "Last thing anyone needs's a pissed gold weyrling," he mutters. "I'm stopping there. You do what you want."
"You're right. I could. But it doesn't mean as much if they don't think of it themselves." Miniyal's mind is rather made up here. She'll fight, quietly and calmly, without giving an inch. "It's not my place to tell people-I mean, it's not. I can't tell people what to do. What is important to them. It's up to them. I do not pry. I do not poke. I do not treat them as if they are just a- a research subject." Now her chin tilts up and she looks him straight on. "Plenty of people know what I am doing. It's not spying. And they're quite able to bring it up to those they believe I am feeling all privileged over." Stepping to one side she pulls her hand from her pocket and waves it back behind her towards the weyrling complex. "Go on then. Warn them about me. I'm sure you'll find most of them are already quite wary considering what's been said in the past. I'm not stopping you from stepping up to defend the people you feel are being taken advantage of. Try it, it'd be a novel thing for you I believe. Looking out for someone else."
Reyce lifts his chin while he listens to her, but he does not seek eye contact anymore and continues to stare down the tunnel. He has, at least, his ear turned to her, clearly listening. His eyelids begin to sink down, halfway covering his eyes, so it's hard to tell even when he does look - after she's finished speaking - since it's a sidelong glance, obscured by shadow. "You do what you want," is all he offers, blandly.
Miniyal smiles and it is a brief flickering thing with some amusement in it. "I do. No one else will do it for me." A glance over her shoulder and a shrug. "Well, I've been stood up it seems. I'll just be on my way. Always a pleasure to see you, Reyce. A delightful conversation. Enjoy your evening." Trading her book from one hand to the other she makes her off to find dinner.