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Post by dragon on Nov 15, 2008 10:38:01 GMT -5
"No, I don't want to be a drudge. But I do already have a skill ... I am a blacksmith by trade, and I can always fall back on that ... even if I stay here at the weyr." Cloar said. And it was obvious by the lack of detest that he really did enjoy working metal.
It would be a sad thing, sure, to not be able to impress a dragon. But his prospects really weren't all that dim if he didn't. Which was a good thing.
But Cloar was not dumb ... he heard that floundering wanting-a-contengency-plan note in the boy's words. "If you're interested, I could teach you some of it? I realize I'm technically only an apprentice, but I was fixing to get my journeyman knots when I came here." He offered.
The plug came out of that bath, too, with a slllorPing sound, followed by a loud under-water POP. Setting the plug on the edge of the bath, Cloar got to his feet.
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 15, 2008 22:02:23 GMT -5
Keloran considered. "No, I mean, I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I want to be a smith."
He considered that. "Maybe I could...I have to come up with something I'd be good at, or there's no point. There's no point doing something you suck at."
He wished there was some way he could try a few things, see what was out there that he might have talent at and enjoy. For now, he moved to fold the rest of the dirty towels and set out clean ones. "Just want to be more than, you know, a drudge. Gotta be something I can do."
A long hesitation "Records, maybe. I'm pretty good with them. Couldn't be a harper...don't have the sense of pitch. But recordskeeper somewhere I could maybe do."
He'd still have to leave. He could not face his father every day having failed. It was hard enough now, when there was still hope for him, still more clutches he could stand at. More hatchlings to pass him by and reject him. "It's harder for the weyrbred," he admitted, finally. "We're raised to this."
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Post by dragon on Nov 15, 2008 22:36:49 GMT -5
"True." Cloar admitted, even as he nodded to accept Keloran's declining answer. "There are things you can do to try things out about the weyr ... Kemma already offered them to me. Something about learning new skills that I might want to try. I forget what she called them. But she told me about them when I graduated. Have you graduated from classes?" Cloar asked, curiously.
"I don't see why it would be harder for the weyrbred. They grew up here. One day is the same as the next. Or I should think so. I really don't know ... having spent most of my life in a hold ... can't say as I know what normal weyrbred life is like." he stood there and stared downward at the tiny funnel of water-twister that was forming as the vast amounts of water made its way out of the baths and into the drains. For most of the depth of the water, it was a thread-thin line visible in the water, until right below the surface, where it flared outward into a funnel that was ultimately about three inches wide at the water's surface.
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 16, 2008 22:41:33 GMT -5
Keloran shook his head. "I *should* have, but I haven't. I shoud soon, though."
A pause. "Harder to find a backup plan. When your family expects you to Impress, when nothing else is good enough for them..."
He stopped abruptly, knowing he had said too much, more than he had ever said to anyone. It wasn't like it was Cloar's sharding business what Keloran did or did not do, unless they ended up wingmates.
So, he clammed up like a pouting 'mandyr and went back to his work, although Cloar, no doubt, would pick up on his sudden awkwardness, his discomfort with the topic.
Normal weyrbred life was about dragons. Cloar should know that. Everything revolved around the great beasts. It had to. There was no alternative, and there could be no other priority for him. Yet...
...his dragon did not hatch. Over and over again, he failed.
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Post by dragon on Nov 17, 2008 12:07:40 GMT -5
Cloar stopped working for a moment, and just looked at Keloran. Keloran was a weyrbrat? Cloar honestly had not known that. No wonder the lad was so distressed over not hatching ... here was someone who grew up with the idea of one thing being the desirable life's work. No wonder he was having such a depressed emotional stressing out over something so ...
Anyway.
"That's rather ... unfair." Cloar managed, finally. Folks ought not set standards like that. Especially when it was on something that a body had no control over at all. But Cloar was just sensitive enough to know better than to pry ... Keloran was obviously uncomfortable with the topic, and had apparently said more than he'd intended to. Which Cloar could sympathize with ... he'd done that a couple times in his life, too.
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 17, 2008 12:11:25 GMT -5
Keloran spoke without turning round. "Is there any parent out there that doesn't set standards for their kids?"
He bet there were crafter mothers and fathers who became bitterly disappointed if their offspring chose a different profession. And man, if you were heir to a Hold. Maybe he wasn't so badly off.
That was all he said for now, checking the supplies of sweetsand. Those were, after all, quite essential, and at least...at least he could do the drudgework right.
When he finally spoke again, "At least I'm not heir to a Hold, right?"
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Post by dragon on Nov 19, 2008 10:17:06 GMT -5
"I do imagine that all parents, even foster parents, do have certain standards that they wish their children to aspire to. However ... selecting something as high-stationed as dragonriding, and then being happy only with that attainment ... it a little unfair to the child in question." Cloar said, before moving on to the last bath, and rooting around in it to fish more towels out. He half wondered if maybe there hadn't been a flitter parting in here or something.
"Dragonriding is something that no amount of work will get you. No matter how hard you try, it makes no nevermind ... at least that's what I've been told. Either the dragon is there for you, and wants you, or there isn't one. It's all up to the dragons, whether or not you get that station in life. You can work your fingers to the bone, and it still won't do much to change a hatchling's opinion of you." Cloar said, wringing out the towels as he drew them in.
"Or did I get my information cross wired somewhere?" He asked, glancing over at Keloran.
"I an event ... I betcha you impress the next time around ... I have a feeling you will." Cloar winked at the lad, with a crooked grin.
At the mention of an heir to a hold, Cloar managed to not inhale a snort. Ouch. "An heir? Shards. I'd never want to be one of those... golly. All the ploliticing, all the management ... the arguments ... eyi yi yi." He shook his head. "I am most certainly glad I am not one of those."
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 19, 2008 11:50:38 GMT -5
Keloran grinned. "Or, worse, a Lord Holder's daughter." He lifted his nose in the air and made mincing steps, trying to imitate a snooty holder girl. "Thinking she has it so good when she has no freedom whatsoever."
Then he stopped goofing off. "Yeah. Problem is, I'm starting to wonder if I *can* Impress. Three turns is a long time."
It felt like an eternity. A lifetime. "So, I need a backup plan. Maybe what I need is to find something I can work as a job that would also help me out if I did Impress. Got any bright ideas?"
Cloar seemed very smart to him. More savvy than Keloran himself, who would admit to being a sheltered weyrbrat if pushed. Or even if not pushed.
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Post by dragon on Nov 19, 2008 22:08:31 GMT -5
When Keloran started miming a Lord Holder's daughter, Cloar started laughing so hard that he was fairly roaring. And he couldn't breathe! And he couldn't ... stay balanced!
The burly lad toppled right over, into the bath he was working near, where he started floundering around. Righting himself in the water, he stood up, and gasped, grinning stupidly at Keloran. "That was great." He laughed, wiping his face off with one big hand.
"Have you considered entertaining?" Cloar joked, climbing back out of the bath, water dripping and running from his drenched clothes all over the floor.
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 20, 2008 20:37:54 GMT -5
Keloran laughed. "Nah, I get way too much stage fright to be a Harper. I suppose I could always run off with the Traders."
If they'd take him. "But I'm not giving up on my dragon until I absolutely have to. I mean, maybe that green died because her rider gave up and left the Weyr...although I still think it's likely something was wrong with her."
Then, he offered Cloar a hand out of the bath "At least it still had water in it..."
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Post by dragon on Nov 21, 2008 18:25:29 GMT -5
Cloar accepted the aiding hand, and managed to get back to his feet. "At least I didn't crack my head." He agreed, still chortling. Grabbing the hem of his sleeveless shirt, he stripped it off, held it out over the bath and wrung it out thoroughly before putting it back on. "Now, if someone asks me what happened, I'm gonna tell them you decided to use me for a mop." Cloar laughed, poking fun at the other lad.
"I won't give up a shot at a dragon, either, until I absolutely have to." He agreed, slicking his hair back out of his face, and grinning. "What do traders do, besides wander back and forth and trade?" he asked, in a moment of curiousity.
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 21, 2008 21:52:45 GMT -5
Keloran shrugged. "Sell stuff. Anything people will buy, from what I've seen. Sometimes it's good stuff, sometimes it's absolute junk."
Of course, there was a saying about trash and treasure. "You wouldn't make a very good mop," he added, thoughtfully. "Not enough hair."
He ducked exaggeratedly from the other boy. Not that he thought Cloar would actually, say, push him into the pool. "I'd say we needed a girl for that, but there's guys around here with longer locks."
Seriously, there were, and he didn't understand it. Wouldn't long hair be a total pain?
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Post by dragon on Nov 22, 2008 11:51:57 GMT -5
"Hey!" Cloar said, while still chortling. While, normally, he wouldn't have done anything at all to that kind of comment other than ... say something ... when Keloran ducked away from him, that was all the prompting he needed. He jumped after the lad, caught him up, and started knuckling him on the crown for a bit, before letting him squirm away.
Laughing again, Cloar pushed the hair out of his face again. "Some of them girls have some serious hair, don't they?" He agreed.
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Post by shadowreine on Nov 22, 2008 16:57:05 GMT -5
Keloran laughed as Cloar completely destroyed his hairstyle, such as it was.
"I don't know how they find the time to look after hair like that, I really don't."
It seemed to him to be a waste of time, especially as girls looked good enough with short hair. At least, most of them did, if it was done right.
The pools were close to empty at this point. "I suppose we should stop with the horseplay and get back to work," Kel said, reluctantly. "The sooner we get this all done, the more free time we'll have tonight."
Assuming they could avoid any assistant headwomen with more work, that was.
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Post by dragon on Nov 22, 2008 17:48:13 GMT -5
Cloar looked sedately down into the baths as the last of the water drained out, slurping down in the drains. "Well ... if you insist." He held a hand out, toward Keloran without looking. "Hand me that mop, will you?" He asked.
"I dunno how they take care of it all, either ... but I have to admit that most of them wear it really well. And I suppose that's why they do it. They do like to be pretty!" Cloar mentioned, crouching and dropping back down into the now-empty bath.
"What are you planning on doing with your free time?" he asked, curiously, before looking back up at Keloran, and then around for where the mop might be. Where had he left it?
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