Successful Communication
Location: North Weyr
Time: After Lunch on Day 10, Month 11, Turn 3
Players: Roa and Miniyal
Scene: Miniyal get a talkin' to. It's just like old times. Old, dysfunctional times.
It is not the afternoon following Miniyal's dinnertime announcement. It is several days past said announcement, in fact, when Peloth is given a short and succinct message from Reaches senior queen. Now, please, is all it entails with the backdrop image of Miniyal walking into the north weyr.
Within said weyr, Tialith is resting on her couch, curled into a tight, golden coil, with her eyes open and watchful. The weyrwoman is standing and pacing. Be it due to achy legs or anxiety, she seems to have a hard time keeping still. Every so often, Roa looks to the door. Shadows under her eyes suggest that sleep has been somewhat elusive for her, as of late.
The summons is dutifully passed on from dragon to rider and whatever Miniyal was doing she gets out of easily enough. Being summoned, after all, is not something someone says no to. Well, that may not be entirely true, but in this case the weyrling makes no attempt to avoid whatever talk will come. Despite her best efforts not to be, Peloth is left behind. As best she can. There is nothing to stop her from making her own way into the bowl to settle down outside and keep her attention trained on the ledge that leads to the weyr where her rider has gone to.
A knock at the door heralds the arrival of Miniyal. She stands outside, hands in her pockets, waiting. If the senior weyrwoman is restless she is anything but, at least on the outside. Internal fidgeting remains hidden.
The knock gives Roa's restlessness new direction, and her pacing carries her to the door so that it can be pulled open. There's no surprise at who stands there waiting. Roa called for her, after all. She steps back, holding out an arm to invite the weyrling inside. "Hey," she offers once the door can be shut, again. "How are you?"
"I am fine, thank you." Standard reply to the question she is likely sick of by now. Miniyal gives no indication of how very tired she might be at that question in her answer. It is just given in a calm, overly polite sort of way after she has stepped inside and moved away from the door so it might be closed.
"Okay," Roa allows. Maybe she's familiar with answers-by-rote, or maybe she just doesn't care it's by rote at the moment. "What something to drink or eat or to sit or anything?" She moves away from the door again, and now walks towards the couches and the table they surround.
Because she is cruel and only asks for force an answer! Ahem. Head shaking, Miniyal gives yet another rote answer. "I do not need anything at the moment. Thank you." She only breaks from the script in that she does go ahead and move to a couch to sit down. Hands folded in her lap she perches on the edge of the cushion and waits.
"Okay," the weyrwoman says again. She doesn't sit, but she takes up a standing spot right in front of the other couch. A good spot to seat herself if she were inclined to do so. Except she's not. The weyrwoman keeps her arms carefully relaxed by her side and her hands carefully unclenched. "I need you to start telling me when you're going to do something like all of the things that you've been doing. You have to at least tell me."
"I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am." From looking down at her hands Miniyal tilts her head up so she might look across at the standing weyrwoman. "If you mean the other evening, I am sorry but it was not-" Blinking she stops and searches around for her explanation, settling on the simplest easiest truth of it all. "It was not something I could say twice. However, I am unaware of anything else I have been doing that requires notifying you of, ma'am."
"Then perhaps you shouldn't have chosen quite so open a venue for what needed to be said." Roa sighs, one hand lifting to slide over the top of her confined hair. "I think leaving Instigator documents on the doorstep of Bendenite weyrwomen constitutes something I need to know about, Miniyal."
"What he did was mine to share. He left that knowledge to me. It was my right to share it how I would. No. It was my responsibility to do what I did." If she is still somewhat distant and formally polite there is for just a moment a flicker of her old self in those words. Miniyal does what she thinks is best, of course. And knows what is best in most cases. That moment passes however. "Excuse me, ma'am? Very well. I promise in the future I will share no such documents with any weyrwoman from Benden without first discussing it with you."
"It was your responsibility to share that knowledge, yes. I'm not convinced doing so while standing on the top of a bench in the middle of the Living Cavern was...Faranth. What if I hadn't been there? What if Ashwin hadn't? You could have started a weyrwide panic. People's right to knowledge does not excuse that knowledge being given irresponsibly." Roa bites her lower lip, closes her eyes, and shakes her head. "Never mind. Who else have you given those documents? Who else do you intend to give them to?"
Head tilting to the side Miniyal doesn't move but to absently twist around her finger her ring. "Ma'am, I appreciate we don't always get along, but please do not feel that requires insulting my intelligence. I had known for two days. Do you not think I could have said something sooner? Give me enough credit to have picked the most opportune time to speak." Now she shakes her head for a moment. "What had been done had remained unknown for too long. People had a right to know the truth. To keep it from them once knowing it would have been its own crime. As for the other matter, I do not know. It depends on who needs to see them."
"It is hard to credit you with anything when you never -tell- me anything," the weyrwoman notes. She blows her breath out in a puff of air. "And who, preytell, has 'needed to know' so far? What is your criteria for deciding such?"
"You would tell me no." There, she just comes out and says it. Welcome to the future all out in the open now. Miniyal's gaze drops down to her hands once more, staring at the ring there that she stops toying with now to better look at it. "Well, there was yourself, of course, ma'am. You would have been the first person I gave copies to." Don't forget, you once benefited from the sneakiness too. Not that she'd ever /say/ that. Just imply it. "I sent Issa a copy. Let me see. . .Ginella, of course. Not that I expect it to do any good, but one must try. Oh. And I shared them with H'kon. Oh, not all. I didn't figure it'd make a difference to him to learn how those leaders he believes are infallible are in fact lying torturous bastards, ma'am. I believe that is all. I only have a few copies after all with little time to make more at the moment."
"Fucking right I would tell you 'no'," Roa says with a sharp and exasperated sigh. "Packages handed off with no name or suggestion as to who they're from? Full of information that, so far as most people know, could be fabricated propaganda? While they're living on our doorstep and a Grand Conclave is going to be called and we need people to listen to us when we suggest that perhaps retrying them might be a wise way to go about it? You are behaving irresponsibly. Selfishly, as well."
With a shake of her head Miniyal lets out a sigh. "Secrets are never as safe as one thinks they are and please do not insult me again my getting all defensive and thinking I threaten you." Looking up calmly she stares at the other weyrwoman with as bland an expression as ever. "So, you think /this/ weyr stepping up and speaking for any sort of. . .there are always records somewhere, ma'am. And it is not as if we do not have enemies. Besides, now is the perfect time for the truth to come out. Before the Grand Conclave. Let them know their history if they do not already before they determine the future. I'm sorry, what did you want me to do with this information once I had gotten it for you? Never use it again? It's good enough for /you/ to get to know, but no one else? Forgive me, ma'am, for thinking that the fucking disgusting things done on both sides of that whole fucking mess should be known. Excuse me, ma'am, for being sick of history being so damned one-sided that it sets the stage to be repeated over and over. Maybe next time we'll just sneak up on anyone who dares disagree with us and slit their throats while they sleep. Sure would save us a whole mess of trouble, ma'am."
"Yes, of course, that's precisely what I'm saying. Let's kill everyone who disagrees with us right now. Let's lie to the Grand Conclave. I am delighted, utterly, that you understand me so well." Roa certainly looks delighted, what with that scowl and the stiffness and the clenched jaw. "Do not do me the insult of pretending you chose those you would inform based on purely altruistic motives. This was a told-you-so. You do not 'spread the truth' by dropping unconfirmable information without a name. If we want to give information to the Grand Conclave, we do so with listed sources and the location of every damn document used at Harper Hall. Which is somewhat different from your current method. The truth is useless if nobody can trust or believe it. And you're using it for your own ends more than for a greater good."
Just to provide the perfect counterpoint Miniyal continues to sit still and, to all appearances, perfectly relaxed. "Oh, sorry. The insults can only go one way. Forgive me, ma'am." Well, if perfectly polite unmoving precisely seated statues can be relaxed looking. "However, I do appreciate that you know why I did what I did. It certainly makes it easier for me. I do not even have to think anymore. And to think, popular opinion has it with Gans dead I would finally be able to think for myself. How refreshing to know you can, instead, interpret all my actions for me and assign motives at will, ma'am."
"Miniyal..." Roa sucks in a short breath and stares up at the ceiling, jaw clenched, cheeks suddenly flushed, eyes blinking rapidly. She is silent for a long few beats and several sharp swallows. Then she sniffs, lowers her gaze and begins again. "I don't want to have the same fight we keep on having every time we disagree. I Just...I can't. I want you to talk to R'vain. Explain the situation to him, see what he has to say about it. He makes more sense to you anyhow and I just..." she shakes her head, arms crossing over her chest.
"My way may not be yours, ma'am, but it doesn't make it wrong. And it doesn't give you the right to stand there and lecture me like I am a child. Like I do not consider the consequences of my actions. I don't know, maybe that makes it worse for you that I do." Miniyal shakes her head and watches the floor. "Is that all, ma'am?"
"I think," Roa swallows again, "that it would be unwise for me to say anything more just now. That's all. Thanks for coming by."
Rising to her feet Miniyal salutes before heading to the door. "You're in charge, ma'am. You say jump what choice have I but to do so?" Shaking her head she walks to the door. "I'm sorry, ma'am. If I could crawl into a dark hole and die to make it easier for you I would. Maybe the world will get lucky and we'll have an accident. Do everyone a favor. I'd rather be dead anyway." Opening the door she turns to salute once more. "Have a pleasant day, ma'am."
Miniyal is allowed her parting lecture and, indeed, to depart. The weyrwoman moves so that she can stand behind the couch and rest her arms on its back, her head bowed. "Children are a wonder, he says," she mutters with a headshake. And then she just groans and buries her face in the plush cushions on the back of the couch.
Time: After Lunch on Day 10, Month 11, Turn 3
Players: Roa and Miniyal
Scene: Miniyal get a talkin' to. It's just like old times. Old, dysfunctional times.
It is not the afternoon following Miniyal's dinnertime announcement. It is several days past said announcement, in fact, when Peloth is given a short and succinct message from Reaches senior queen. Now, please, is all it entails with the backdrop image of Miniyal walking into the north weyr.
Within said weyr, Tialith is resting on her couch, curled into a tight, golden coil, with her eyes open and watchful. The weyrwoman is standing and pacing. Be it due to achy legs or anxiety, she seems to have a hard time keeping still. Every so often, Roa looks to the door. Shadows under her eyes suggest that sleep has been somewhat elusive for her, as of late.
The summons is dutifully passed on from dragon to rider and whatever Miniyal was doing she gets out of easily enough. Being summoned, after all, is not something someone says no to. Well, that may not be entirely true, but in this case the weyrling makes no attempt to avoid whatever talk will come. Despite her best efforts not to be, Peloth is left behind. As best she can. There is nothing to stop her from making her own way into the bowl to settle down outside and keep her attention trained on the ledge that leads to the weyr where her rider has gone to.
A knock at the door heralds the arrival of Miniyal. She stands outside, hands in her pockets, waiting. If the senior weyrwoman is restless she is anything but, at least on the outside. Internal fidgeting remains hidden.
The knock gives Roa's restlessness new direction, and her pacing carries her to the door so that it can be pulled open. There's no surprise at who stands there waiting. Roa called for her, after all. She steps back, holding out an arm to invite the weyrling inside. "Hey," she offers once the door can be shut, again. "How are you?"
"I am fine, thank you." Standard reply to the question she is likely sick of by now. Miniyal gives no indication of how very tired she might be at that question in her answer. It is just given in a calm, overly polite sort of way after she has stepped inside and moved away from the door so it might be closed.
"Okay," Roa allows. Maybe she's familiar with answers-by-rote, or maybe she just doesn't care it's by rote at the moment. "What something to drink or eat or to sit or anything?" She moves away from the door again, and now walks towards the couches and the table they surround.
Because she is cruel and only asks for force an answer! Ahem. Head shaking, Miniyal gives yet another rote answer. "I do not need anything at the moment. Thank you." She only breaks from the script in that she does go ahead and move to a couch to sit down. Hands folded in her lap she perches on the edge of the cushion and waits.
"Okay," the weyrwoman says again. She doesn't sit, but she takes up a standing spot right in front of the other couch. A good spot to seat herself if she were inclined to do so. Except she's not. The weyrwoman keeps her arms carefully relaxed by her side and her hands carefully unclenched. "I need you to start telling me when you're going to do something like all of the things that you've been doing. You have to at least tell me."
"I'm not sure what you mean, ma'am." From looking down at her hands Miniyal tilts her head up so she might look across at the standing weyrwoman. "If you mean the other evening, I am sorry but it was not-" Blinking she stops and searches around for her explanation, settling on the simplest easiest truth of it all. "It was not something I could say twice. However, I am unaware of anything else I have been doing that requires notifying you of, ma'am."
"Then perhaps you shouldn't have chosen quite so open a venue for what needed to be said." Roa sighs, one hand lifting to slide over the top of her confined hair. "I think leaving Instigator documents on the doorstep of Bendenite weyrwomen constitutes something I need to know about, Miniyal."
"What he did was mine to share. He left that knowledge to me. It was my right to share it how I would. No. It was my responsibility to do what I did." If she is still somewhat distant and formally polite there is for just a moment a flicker of her old self in those words. Miniyal does what she thinks is best, of course. And knows what is best in most cases. That moment passes however. "Excuse me, ma'am? Very well. I promise in the future I will share no such documents with any weyrwoman from Benden without first discussing it with you."
"It was your responsibility to share that knowledge, yes. I'm not convinced doing so while standing on the top of a bench in the middle of the Living Cavern was...Faranth. What if I hadn't been there? What if Ashwin hadn't? You could have started a weyrwide panic. People's right to knowledge does not excuse that knowledge being given irresponsibly." Roa bites her lower lip, closes her eyes, and shakes her head. "Never mind. Who else have you given those documents? Who else do you intend to give them to?"
Head tilting to the side Miniyal doesn't move but to absently twist around her finger her ring. "Ma'am, I appreciate we don't always get along, but please do not feel that requires insulting my intelligence. I had known for two days. Do you not think I could have said something sooner? Give me enough credit to have picked the most opportune time to speak." Now she shakes her head for a moment. "What had been done had remained unknown for too long. People had a right to know the truth. To keep it from them once knowing it would have been its own crime. As for the other matter, I do not know. It depends on who needs to see them."
"It is hard to credit you with anything when you never -tell- me anything," the weyrwoman notes. She blows her breath out in a puff of air. "And who, preytell, has 'needed to know' so far? What is your criteria for deciding such?"
"You would tell me no." There, she just comes out and says it. Welcome to the future all out in the open now. Miniyal's gaze drops down to her hands once more, staring at the ring there that she stops toying with now to better look at it. "Well, there was yourself, of course, ma'am. You would have been the first person I gave copies to." Don't forget, you once benefited from the sneakiness too. Not that she'd ever /say/ that. Just imply it. "I sent Issa a copy. Let me see. . .Ginella, of course. Not that I expect it to do any good, but one must try. Oh. And I shared them with H'kon. Oh, not all. I didn't figure it'd make a difference to him to learn how those leaders he believes are infallible are in fact lying torturous bastards, ma'am. I believe that is all. I only have a few copies after all with little time to make more at the moment."
"Fucking right I would tell you 'no'," Roa says with a sharp and exasperated sigh. "Packages handed off with no name or suggestion as to who they're from? Full of information that, so far as most people know, could be fabricated propaganda? While they're living on our doorstep and a Grand Conclave is going to be called and we need people to listen to us when we suggest that perhaps retrying them might be a wise way to go about it? You are behaving irresponsibly. Selfishly, as well."
With a shake of her head Miniyal lets out a sigh. "Secrets are never as safe as one thinks they are and please do not insult me again my getting all defensive and thinking I threaten you." Looking up calmly she stares at the other weyrwoman with as bland an expression as ever. "So, you think /this/ weyr stepping up and speaking for any sort of. . .there are always records somewhere, ma'am. And it is not as if we do not have enemies. Besides, now is the perfect time for the truth to come out. Before the Grand Conclave. Let them know their history if they do not already before they determine the future. I'm sorry, what did you want me to do with this information once I had gotten it for you? Never use it again? It's good enough for /you/ to get to know, but no one else? Forgive me, ma'am, for thinking that the fucking disgusting things done on both sides of that whole fucking mess should be known. Excuse me, ma'am, for being sick of history being so damned one-sided that it sets the stage to be repeated over and over. Maybe next time we'll just sneak up on anyone who dares disagree with us and slit their throats while they sleep. Sure would save us a whole mess of trouble, ma'am."
"Yes, of course, that's precisely what I'm saying. Let's kill everyone who disagrees with us right now. Let's lie to the Grand Conclave. I am delighted, utterly, that you understand me so well." Roa certainly looks delighted, what with that scowl and the stiffness and the clenched jaw. "Do not do me the insult of pretending you chose those you would inform based on purely altruistic motives. This was a told-you-so. You do not 'spread the truth' by dropping unconfirmable information without a name. If we want to give information to the Grand Conclave, we do so with listed sources and the location of every damn document used at Harper Hall. Which is somewhat different from your current method. The truth is useless if nobody can trust or believe it. And you're using it for your own ends more than for a greater good."
Just to provide the perfect counterpoint Miniyal continues to sit still and, to all appearances, perfectly relaxed. "Oh, sorry. The insults can only go one way. Forgive me, ma'am." Well, if perfectly polite unmoving precisely seated statues can be relaxed looking. "However, I do appreciate that you know why I did what I did. It certainly makes it easier for me. I do not even have to think anymore. And to think, popular opinion has it with Gans dead I would finally be able to think for myself. How refreshing to know you can, instead, interpret all my actions for me and assign motives at will, ma'am."
"Miniyal..." Roa sucks in a short breath and stares up at the ceiling, jaw clenched, cheeks suddenly flushed, eyes blinking rapidly. She is silent for a long few beats and several sharp swallows. Then she sniffs, lowers her gaze and begins again. "I don't want to have the same fight we keep on having every time we disagree. I Just...I can't. I want you to talk to R'vain. Explain the situation to him, see what he has to say about it. He makes more sense to you anyhow and I just..." she shakes her head, arms crossing over her chest.
"My way may not be yours, ma'am, but it doesn't make it wrong. And it doesn't give you the right to stand there and lecture me like I am a child. Like I do not consider the consequences of my actions. I don't know, maybe that makes it worse for you that I do." Miniyal shakes her head and watches the floor. "Is that all, ma'am?"
"I think," Roa swallows again, "that it would be unwise for me to say anything more just now. That's all. Thanks for coming by."
Rising to her feet Miniyal salutes before heading to the door. "You're in charge, ma'am. You say jump what choice have I but to do so?" Shaking her head she walks to the door. "I'm sorry, ma'am. If I could crawl into a dark hole and die to make it easier for you I would. Maybe the world will get lucky and we'll have an accident. Do everyone a favor. I'd rather be dead anyway." Opening the door she turns to salute once more. "Have a pleasant day, ma'am."
Miniyal is allowed her parting lecture and, indeed, to depart. The weyrwoman moves so that she can stand behind the couch and rest her arms on its back, her head bowed. "Children are a wonder, he says," she mutters with a headshake. And then she just groans and buries her face in the plush cushions on the back of the couch.