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 Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 6:02 pm
"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!"
F'sey heard him coming before they were around the corner.
"I'M TELLING YOU THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG! LISTEN TO ME!"
They didn't listen. Not to him. They didn't even listen to what Sesabal said past his orders, obeying them and moving on. The Wher Guard were not proprietors of change as the White Guard were; one stood for a new era and the other for controlling chaos, old or new, by any means necessary; including but not limited to hurling the Whitemaster in prison.
The ominous clank of bars and taunting click of a lock went unheeded by the one who should have been listening closer to them than anyone else. J'aro could not, would not, hear them. His own voice was much too loud, shouting down the halls after the trio of men: "YOU'RE HELPING HIM! SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING!"
Someone was going to go deaf if he didn't stop the shouting.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 6:15 pm
F'sey heard the Whitemaster before he saw him.
While he had certainly expected to see the redheaded white-riding a*****e sometime in the near future, he certainly had not expected to see J'aro in the company of three hulking Wher handlers. (Where all the handlers giants gollums of muscle and brute strength on this island?) Even more surprising still, the trio tossed the rider into the cell, slammed the door and walked away without so much of a second glance. For a moment, F'sey could only stare on in complete shock.
Only for a moment, though.
A wicked grin curling the edges of his mouth, the greenrider sauntered over to their shared border and leaned against the bars. Wrinkling his nose, he rapped against the metal with his knuckles and leered. "Fancy meeting you here. What goes around comes around, huh?"
This? This felt pretty good, yep.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 6:25 pm
J'aro was not born with the ability to ignore. Learning to block things out and focus was a chore; a tiresome, grueling chore that he thought impossible so many times. The internal realm was his bane. The external a safe place where he could live, not think. Then, Rajath had came along, and like with everything else in his life, changed it. Keeping her under control met keeping himself under control.
He wasn't doing such a great job of it now; however, the wall was rock solid without him trying to build it up. F'sey's words were a waste of breath -- maybe his shouting really had deafened someone. Namely, himself.
Thud.
J'aro's forehead hit the bars. His hands raised, grabbing onto them. He almost (only almost) wished they were Sesabal's throat, so he could throttle the daylights out of him. In the beautiful world where he had that opportunity, knocking some sense into him was not less of a pipe dream than sharing a civil conversation with a white.
"Shards--" and many other curses trailed along in that single breath.
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 6:56 pm
It was rather disappointing, that J'aro didn't even give him a single look. The greenrider waiting for a moment, hoping he'd at least warrant a second glance, but his new company seemed more intent on self-induced injury before everything else.
"Hey. Hey!" F'sey stuck his hand through the bars, reaching over to slap the side of the Whitemaster's head like he was no more than an unruly student. "Knock that off, or you'll knock your brains right out. What's wrong with you?" Withdrawing his limb, he continued to lean against the bars, watching J'aro carefully. "What have you done, to get put in here? It hasn't even been half a day."
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:06 pm
Altogether drained, thoroughly distraught, J'aro didn't hesitate to tell F'sey what was wrong any longer than it took to move out of arms reach of him. If he told someone, and they believed him, so what? What would would they think? "Damn that whiterider looking out for our children"?
Tch. It would be nice to be appreciated now and then, seeing as he really was a man that tried to dictate his every move based on what was going to provide the best outcome for the island dwellers. He didn't always manage it. He was human, he slipped up. But he still tried, and that was more than Sesabal would be able to say if something did happen.
J'aro hoped he was wrong. The embarrassment of it would be worth it. True, he would have damned himself to a lifetime of references being thrown in his face, but compared to the alternative he would gladly suffer through that consequence. Already he could hear the subtle insults: "You acted this way about that hatching, too, J'aro and nothing happened!" they'd say.
"There's something wrong with the hatching ground and our lovely Guardmaster refuses to acknowledge it."
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:28 pm
"Hey. Hey! Don't you walk away from me, get back here!" F'sey grabbed at the retreating man, however useless his effort might be. He just stared after the younger rider for a moment, chewing the side of his cheek as he glared and contemplated the entire situation. It was a great deal of fun, until J'aro started to ignore him. The very idea of having to fight for the man's attention was positively upsetting. F'sey did not fight for anyone's attention, be it Ialluth, B'lin, X-, he didn't fight for attention. Especially not from the Whitemaster, of all people.
The greenrider did not know the Gaurdmaster, did not know if it was usual for him to ignore J'aro. Did not know if the younger man often came up with crazy storied, or if he was being unfairly dismissed. After all, he did say whites were seen like greens, and F'sey knew what it was to be shrugged off because of the dragon.
The dragon was not his fault.
"What's wrong with the Hatching grounds?" he asked, eyebrows raised. "Have you told anyone else?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:41 pm
"Only the two most important and powerful people on both islands," J'aro replied. Not bitter at all. Nope. And he didn't stop think that there was a difference between pouring your heart out and spilling your guts; later, he'd probably regret telling too much. Strange as it was (though not too strange for someone like him), F'sey already felt like one of his better friends. It may have had less to do with the greenrider and more to do with the freedom he represented.
J'aro wasn't about to sit there and brood about it on top of everything else. "I suspect there's a tunnelsnake nest close to it. I'm worried all the commotion is going to draw them out."
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:47 pm
"I see," F'sey grunted, taking note of the redhead's tone. J'aro was usually so sarcastic and obnoxious; this was a side the greenrider had yet to see. Clearly, the whiterider felt snubbed, or something. The former Weyrlingmaster knew the feeling all too well, when no one listened and bad things were inevitable (here's to you and your straps, B'lin). Someone else's welfare on the line was always incredibly stressful, especially when there were children involved. Not only children, but young dragons.
Yes, he could certainly see where the Whitemaster was coming from.
"So what are you going to do about it? Cry like a child who's favorite toy has been taken away?" F'sey scoffed. "Didn't you tell me you were in charge of all the riders?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 7:57 pm
"That's..." Feeling as worn down physically as he was emotionally all of the sudden, J'aro gave up on standing and instead sat with his back against the uninviting wall. The ache from Rajath's throwing him off, followed by being manhandled by wherguards, followed by sitting with bad posture against a hard wall came as no surprise.
Good question, he thought. Shame that all anyone around here ever had was questions and more questions. --No, that wasn't right. They liked to have their share of demands as a side dish. (Not feeling grumpy at all. Not him.)
J'aro glared at the man in the cell next to him for all of two seconds. That double tick of a clock was all he needed to remind himself this was not who he was really mad at. His eyes softened, favored the ceiling now. "You can only be so much in charge of dragonriders. Even golds can't tell the riders themselves what to do. It doesn't matter. They could all answer to me, but I still answer to the Guardmaster. He says it's 'fine', so there's nothing else I can do."
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 8:13 pm
This wasn't like the J'aro he knew at all!
Clicking his tongue, the older redhead shook his head. What was it with these boys, these past few days? First, B'lin, refusing to get back on Xanthoth and now J'aro, ballsy enough to toss him in jail, but too tired to fight the system any further. How did they expect anything done?
And enter F'sey, changer of destinies. (Or so he seemed to think, the nosy man. Always trying to make some sort of difference.)
"Well, how much do you believe in it? If you're really worried, you find someone to send after the snakes you think are doing there. Chase 'em out. Might be easier than trying to get the Queen to do anything, anyways." So maybe F'sey didn't think very highly of any metallic riders, but that really shouldn't come as a great shock.
Holding onto the bars, the greenrider leaned, grey eyes never leaving the younger redhead. "Is that it, then? You'll just sit and wait, because he said so?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 8:21 pm
Fatigued on all fronts, J'aro decided he'd had enough. He was sick of trying to defend these people that would sooner side with the Guardmaster than listen to what he had to say. Sesabal was right; everyone would just get angry. They didn't like change around here (mostly because change always meant things were getting worse somehow).
Forget them. He was throwing in the towel.
Except that he really wasn't doing anything but being a slave to his emotions. He'd never have it in him to really try and mutiny Sesabal and he could never really let this snake issue go just like that. But he could grant himself the temporary relief of thinking so. Sort of. "That's what I said. Unless you can pry these bars apart and mind control the entire island I don't see any other choice. We're already 'chasing them out' and it isn't enough. We'd have to dig to be sure we had all of them, which would mean moving the clutch."
Which would mean public outrage, yadda yadda.
He should have just been a cook.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:28 am
And this, F'sey thought dryly, was why no one gave a greenrider, or in this case, a whiterider, so much as a second look. No spine, so ambition. No matter what J'aro said about color bias not existing on this island, it was plain as day, right in front of him. The younger man was just going to give up, just because things hadn't gone his way? He'd been right when he thought him no more than a spoiled brat.
Youngsters these days. Didn't they know how to work for anything?
"Very well. It's not my island or my candidates or my weyrlings that could potentially be injured, or killed." At the end of the day, F'sey always figured he and Ialluth could run home. He'd no idea whites were faster, and was also of the assumption they didn't go between very well. After all, Rajath had a near fit when J'aro brought him to the prison. (Though, that may have just been him...)
"You must be a strong man, able to shoulder all that guilt. How will you face your Second, if his son gets hurt?" Shrugging, F'sey retreated to the other side of the cell. He'd heard things, even if he'd only been hear a grand total of ten or so days. In fact, he'd made it his business to hear things about that infamous J'aro - after all, he needed to know how the man operated. He got B'lin and F'sey to the island, didn't he? While the greenrider had only heard bits and pieces, he still felt confident enough to try and barb.
If nothing else, he was at least returning the favor.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:47 am
"Very well. It's not my island or my candidates or my weyrlings that could potentially be injured, or killed."
J'aro ignored him.
"You must be a strong man, able to shoulder all that guilt."
J'aro ignored him.
"How will you face your Second, if his son gets hurt?"
J'aro wanted to ignore him, but instead--
--he lost it. His temper? No. No, no. What he lost was his ability to keep quiet, whisked away by the fit of laughter that echoed through the short line of cells. J'aro could never get too angry over those little rumors. They were as true as his dragon was friendly, but the man was by no means (in J'aro's opinion) a bad catch. Better him than a secret love affair with, say, Brambel.
Shudder.
"You cheeky b*****d," he laughed. Like a magnet drew him near them he approached the bars, propping his elbows up on the vertical stretch of steel, just watching. Watching F'sey -- a man he knew now he had severely underestimated. "Already out gossiping with the locals, are we? And here I took you for a shut in." A snort and then a question: "Have you ever met a goldrider, F'sey?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 6:55 am
Ah, there we go! Never one for putting much stock into rumors, F'sey was willing to put a bit more significance on the relationship between J'aro, R'xen and, what was the boy's name? Roxyn? Rox...Rox something, it wasn't important. He'd heard a variety of things, J'aro and R'xen had something going on under the table, J'aro had something unrequited for R'xen, he'd even heard the oddest rumor about the boy having a crush on J'aro. If asked to bet, he'd certainly put his money on the first, or second (because no matter what J'aro thought, he really wasn't that good looking, and if R'xen had a son, well, perhaps he just wasn't interested in that sort of activity).
His grey eyes narrowed just a fraction, though there was no anger readable on F'sey's face. He bit the inside of his lower lip and tipped his head. "A shut in never gets what he wants, J'aro. I thought you'd know as much." After all, the younger redhead was practically a politician. (In such, the greenrider was playing a dangerous game, here, but for now, he felt like he was still on stable ground.)
"Of course I've met a goldrider, you dimglow," he scoffed. "Weyrlingmaster, remember? I've rased a goldrider." (Badly. But J'aro didn't need to know that.) "We had more goldriders than we knew what to do with at Ista. In fact, they were practically giving them away! Why?"
Never lose sight of the forest for the trees, F'sey.
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Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:31 am
Never one to miss an opportunity to play the smartass in F'sey's company, J'aro said, "As if I could forget when you keep bringing it up." His face sank behind the back of his arm until only F'sey could only see the bridge of his nose and those bright eyes. With the obstruction blocking his mouth, his voice was muffled, but not incomprehensible. "It doesn't work that way everywhere. I've heard the High Reaches Weyrwoman prefers training her golds herself."
As far as why he asked about those goldriders...
"No reason," J'aro replied like a chesire cat, no doubt grinning like one behind his sleeve.
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