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 Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:10 am
Sr. Weyrlings update
- Kannaroth remains very slightly to the side of her sisters. She adores them, but always puts herself first in the end. Her priorities go: Kannaroth, then her sisters and her rider, then her sister's riders and her flitts. The gap between her and her sisters/Y'kar is much smaller than the gap between them and the other riders/flitts. Everyone else is scorned; she has really come into her own with acid comments.
She still doesn't care to prove herself to anyone, but she is aware that if she pisses off the people in charge too much her life will become uncomfortable. As such, while she will snap nasty comments at every opportunity she strives to do her best in lessons, and obeys orders when she feels she has no other option.
- Y'kar hasn't really managed to sidle up to anyone important yet but he's managed to make a friend or two outside their group. He is completely open with the others now, and prioritizes their interests somewhat beneath Kannaroth's, and a very small amount beneath his own. He trusts them to keep his secrets for him, but should they ever ruin things for him have no doubt that he would come to despise them very quickly indeed.
As far as the rest of the Weyr is concerned, if any of it is paying attention, he's a bright enough lad doing his best under bad circumstances. Of course, a lot of people won't care to find this out about him, and will still just dismiss him as 'one of those three green riders'. He hates being put down like this, and unlike Kannaroth he would quite like to prove how amazing he and his dragon can be. He is not, however, prepared to compromise his act for anything; he is only aggressive when people are insulting Kannaroth, and even then he doesn't exactly pull out all the stops. If he is to get anywhere, he feels, he can't let the world see the real him.
- Kannaroth and Y'kar have both taken well to all the theory they've been asked to master; Kannaroth forgets it just like any dragon, but can be reminded very swiftly when she has got to grips with an idea once.
Y'kar has struggled with strap making; he is just about adequate now but it takes him a long time to make a solid set of straps, leaving him with less time for other things.
Kannaroth has come out as small as was expected; she will be around 6' at the shoulder fully grown. This along with her light build make her speed and agility superb, but her endurance terrible. In order to last even a third of a Threadfall, she will have to manage her energy extremely carefully, if she doesn't watch it she will be worn out and clumsy before it's time for her to land.
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Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:14 am
Okay. So let's look at the order of events here, I need to get this straight in my head.
Kaveth rises > Kaveth clutches > Iva visits High Reaches, rumors of plague start springing up thick as tunnel snakes > Malkai and Iva are invited to High Reaches for a feast > Something happens to the HR weyrleader, plague is suspected, everyone who was at the feast is now quarantined.
A pretty interesting few days in all, and there's still the clutch on the sands to consider. At least we'll be getting our own weyrs before that lot hatch though, I was really not looking forward to sharing the dorm with a bunch of mewling idiots.
Speaking of mewling idiots, this whole situation has of course set the whole Weyr off. Both of our gold riders, the ones of an age to rise that is, are currently stuck at High Reaches, and are possibly going to catch plague and die. All eyes are on that gold egg more than ever now, who knows, it might have to hatch straight into the post of Weyrwoman! Not practical, they'd have to do something else, get a gold from another Weyr or something... But that's a sensible thought so I expect most people aren't thinking it. Some of the girls who are looking at that egg might even be hoping that neither of our queen riders come back; what a perfect shot at power.
All in all, I don't know what to make of this. Would they have assumed it was plague making the weyrleader sick if not for the rumors of plague? Is this evidance that the rumors are true? I suppose only time will tell, and that for the time being I'd be best to avoid public areas if possible, they'll be full of panicking people. Should I panic too?... Maybe, if it is the plague then everyone should be, but until I know for sure I'll just try to keep my head together. There might be no reason to worry at all.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:29 am
Well, we've got both of our gold riders back in one piece. It is plague, apparently, and apparently High Reaches is going mad. Their weyrleader already sick, a lot of them likely to follow, lots of frantic running around like a decapitated wherry I hear. They've sent their weyrlings off to Ghenza though, I wonder how their Weyrwoman managed to persuade that closed off place to take in possibly tainted refugees? Well, maybe I will find out sometime, right now there are other concerns...
Our weyrwomen were given a clean bill of health, but could there have been a mistake? Might they be carrying the sickness? It's an unpleasant thought, especially as there's nothing at all we can do to help our situation.
"Quite. Egh. This is stupid, they should have just stayed away rather than risking all of us. We could manage quite well without them... You are not allowed to get sick, Mine."
I'll do my best not to, but it's all out of my control. I hate not being in control. You can't act your way around plague, it doesn't care who you are, how clever you are, it just kills you. Egh. Shards. Well, for now I suppose all we can do is watch, wait, and hope that the gold riders didn't bring it back with them. Nothing else to be done.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:25 am
"Ahahahahahahaha!"
Yes, yes, the gold is a bronze. It is pretty funny, very funny, there everyone was worshipping it as a wonderful amazing gold, and it's a bronze... I'm starting to wish you hadn't quipped quite so loudly or quite so well though. For the moment, our leaders are occupied, but your actions are going to have consequences, Kannaroth.
"So? Let them do what they will to me. If they want to punish me for being sharp and observant, for calling them on their stupid lust for gold above all other colours then they can. I was witty, and I'll bet you anything you like that a lot of dragons were smirking along with me. Hehe. All hail the queen."
Yes. All hail the queen... At least the hatching seems to have dulled people's awareness of the plague, so the place doesn't feel so panicked. It's still out there though, over at High Reaches, and it could still come here. I guess there's no point worrying myself about it, but there's no point trying to totally ignore it either. It's out there, and it could come here, simple as that.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:33 am
Well, that explains a lot. For the last few days Treasure has been out of control and snappy, she nearly took the end of my finger off when I went to stroke her. I guess I should have recognized the signs given we've gone over it all in relation to dragons but I was so focused on training her to do useful things, all I could think of was that is was a pain she was suddenly so uncooperative.
Proddy flitt, should have known.
She rose yesterday, and I felt... Odd, faintly attracted to the owners of the flitts who were chasing her, and then fairly strongly to the girl whose bronze won. It was nothing at all like Kannaroth's flights will be, just a crush that lasted a few minutes.
In any case, soon enough I'll have some eggs... We'll have some eggs, I don't think I'll be able to get out of sharing the clutch with her. Oh well, there should be plenty to go around. Humm... One for Jasrai or A'li (does he even like flitts? I have no idea), sell at least one... Maybe I should give one to L'pin, it would be amusing to see the look on his face. At long last, a friend for the wingless blue rider.
Still, for now I'll have to wait and see how many eggs she clutches, no point making plans until then.
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Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:42 am
All in all it could be a lot worse. No more lessons from the weyrling master, we're getting individual tutoring now apparently, thanks to Kannaroth's little display at the hatching I expect. Well, that must have been the last straw anyway, we've all been fairly good since then.
"Egh. We don't need teaching, we've learned everything very well!"
Except how to keep your mouth shut.
"I do as I'm told, that's the best I can offer. I will obey those stupider than me because I have no choice, don't expect me to pretend to like it."
...Yea. Well, we'll see how this one plays out. One good thing, this will mean I can work on strap making as much as I need to without dragging the others back. I don't know why I find it so hard, I guess I'm just not all that good with my hands. I can make a sturdy set now, but it would be nice if I could do it in a more normal timeframe.
We don't know who our tutor is going to be yet, but I imagine we'll find out soon. I just hope whoever it is isn't too sadistic; hoping for them to actually be nice is a bridge too far, I think.
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Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 1:34 pm
Seven eggs; not a bad number at all. The bronze's owner and I took half the clutch each, I probably could have wormed out and kept all of them to have, gift, or sell but I do like to keep up good relations. In the end I kept one for myself, gave one to Jasrai, one to L'pin, and the seventh egg I sold (for a good price!) and split the marks with the bronze's owner, I even did it honestly straight down the middle.
The look on L'pin's face when I gave him the egg was pretty priceless, I told him it was to make up for missing his birthday. I think I've secured him as an ally with that one, but more work on him can't be a bad thing of course. Would have been nice to have another egg for A'li, but I don't even know if he really likes the things. Well, there will be more clutches, maybe next time he can have one.
My egg was the biggest in the clutch; green shell patched light and dark. I don't think it'll turn out green though, far too big, I'm betting bronze or brown. Either way, I guess it might end up flying Treasure someday; creepy thought to me as a human but dragons do it all the time, guess firelizards do too... Still, I'm not going to encourage them, because it kind of freaks me out no matter how normal it is for them. I think I'll just avoid asking questions about where Treasure's future clutches come from.
Anyway though, flitt eggs hatch a lot faster than dragon eggs, so I should have my new little minion before long.
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:37 am
Life has been hectic recently; first we find out that the weyrleader of High Reaches is dead, but that it wasn't the plague, so everyone had a good gossip about that and felt very relieved... I want to know how that one turns out, apparently somebody poisoned him, which is interesting. If it was a grab for power by somebody, it wasn't a very smart one, far too obvious. If you're going to poison somebody it should be a slow poison, one that takes a good month or two to kill, and that could be confused with some wasting disease or other... Mmmh, still, I don't know anything about plants, and right now killing people off wouldn't do me any good.
"Exactly, and it's probably too much risk for us at any time. The prize would have to be very special to go so far, even I know that and I'm famed for just grabbing what I want and shard the consequences."
Exactly, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to go through with it anyway. I may be about as selfish as they come, and I may not care at flitt's tailfork about what happens to most people, but I don't think I'd be able to intentionally end a life myself. If they just happen to die, that's one thing, and if I can take advantage of a death then good but... No. I couldn't cause one on purpose.
In any case, the real hectic bit has come more recently. Apparently thanks to Kannaroth's comments at the hatching, we won't be allowed to graduate unless we do something special to prove ourselves. Given we've all excelled at our lessons this made me pretty furious until I found out it was offering me a good opportunity; I shall be assisting I'dan and his wing. I get to sort out weather records and predictions, help plan flight formations, even take part in them, do general chores, and play the Thread for full drills. All in all, this has come out better than if we'd just been allowed to graduate. I get to prove Kannaroth's worth to the whole Weyr. We won't be laughing stock for much longer. They'll see.
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Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:54 am
I've been working for I'dan for some days now, and things are going rather well. As a lowly rider of one of those awful greens I've never had much contact with him before, but it turns out his reputation for being easy going is more than just talk. It's not as if he's giving me an easy ride, I'm working harder than I think I ever have in my life, but he's fair to me, and to Kannaroth. About time somebody didn;t let prejudice blind them.
All of the theoretical things we need to do, we're doing just about perfectly now we've got the hang of it. I've made sure I'dan knows that it's not just me reading over the documents he tells me to and coming back with an analysis, he is now very well aware that Kannaroth is responsible for at least half of the good thoughts we come up with. She's brilliant, and I won't let that go unnoticed any longer.
Taking part in formation flights has been harder, as we're basically starting from scratch. Knowing how everything looks on paper is very different to flying in a full wing, seen as there are just the three of us we've never been able to do anything even vaguely resembling a drill. As we're both so busy thinking about what we ought to be doing, we tend to move a bit late, and sometimes we move at the wrong time or in the wrong direction, but we improve every day and Kannaroth's agility has kept us from causing any accidents at least.
Playing the mock Thread has been technically easier, but a lot more exhausting; in order to give the whole wing a decent go Kannaroth has to stay up longer than is comfortable for her. I don't know if this is actually building her endurance any further, or if she's peaked in that respect. No matter how much she tries, she's never going to last very long in the air. Still, it's quite good fun trying to catch them all out, and my ever growing faire has made things interesting as well; they drop a wayward clump every so often, it really surprised a few of the riders the first time they did it, I think.
So, all in all I think things are going well. All the theory and admin work is easy, and we're improving quickly at flying in formation. I think I'dan is quite pleased with us, but whether or not he's pleased enough to recommend we graduate is another matter entirely. Kannaroth's been amazingly good, biting down on the sharp comments she thinks of whenever we're on duty, and being careful who she snaps at off duty as well. I know this is hard for her - she's alseep right now, worn out from hard work and being civil - but the end result will be worth it. We will be recognised. We will not fail.
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Posted: Sun May 23, 2010 7:41 am
Well, we did it, we all graduated. I even mangled to stay in I'dan's wing; I'm not sure but I think he might have asked for me personally. I wouldn't be too surprised if he did, when you get up close nobody could miss Kannaroth's potential. I wasn't asked to, but I'm carrying on doing weather reports and so on for I'dan; it doesn't take too long now I'm practiced at it, and getting in his good books is worth eating into my free time for. I know allying myself with a weyrleader is no long term guarantee of power - things change - but I think he'll always be a popular wingleader, and an influential man.
"Mmmh, yes, if he likes us he might help us get the things we want, or disbelieve people who speak against us."
Maybe so, but that doesn't mean we can be careless.
"I suppose. I'll be as subtle as I ever am, then."
Oh dear. Well, barring Kannaroth stealing the Weyrwoman's best dress and getting us exiled or something, I feel we're doing well; we've got a good thing going here... I think I will keep up my friendship with L'pin though; I can spin it to anyone who asks as trying to help him find the same chance to prove himself and his dragon as I was given. I don't expect it to happen though, that brute of his is more stubborn and violent than Nellath.
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