Tick Tock, Here We Are Again {Council Meeting}

To say J’dol was uninterested in this meeting would be an understatement. It was necessary, sure, but it didn’t mean he wanted to be there. There were times he hated having a position of power, and this was one of them. He didn’t even have Kayath to keep him occupied this time as the Topaz was in a deep sleep, sunning herself near the river. With a pile of skins under his arm, he finally traipsed into the meeting room, offering a nod of his head to the dragonless man. As weird as it was for Sev to be at the meeting, J’dol was happy about it. In truth Sevrin’s opinions mean more to him than many of the other leader’s did, but he still couldn’t help but wonder why he was present.

“Let’s hope this goes quickly,” J’dol mumbled to himself before leaning down to plant a kiss on Ara’s cheek before dropping his skins on the table and lounging in a fashion much like Sevrin’s. He’d sit properly when the meeting got under way. Spazz and Tipsy were both, for once, asleep on his shoulders, though he knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long.

---

J’degar was significantly happier about this meeting than others seemed to be. He liked progress, likes organization. A meeting was the perfect way to share necessary information, not to mention it brought back memories of his days as a wingthird, which put him in a semi-good mood at least. The mood wouldn’t last long however, he knew there would be some ‘unpleasant’ topics. Marching into the room, he scowled at the lazy state of the weyrwoman and that troublemaking ex rider.

“I was under the impression this was a meeting for the leaders and teachers of the Weyr.” He scoffed, his eyes narrowed in disappointment. Shards, the Weyr had been in rough shape when he initially arrived, but now it seemed it was anything goes. No wonder the Rebellion was able to pick on Trelis without much trouble. There was a lack of discipline and order. I know what you are thinking, GarMine. Does your promise not matter anymore? J’degar sat down at the table, sitting straight and tall and looking all the world like a real leader should. Perhaps it was time he considered his original goal once more… someone needed to whip this place into shape.

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J’degar scowled at everyone in the room as the meeting seemed to begin. If he had had things his way, the brownrider never would have allowed half the candidates onto the sands, but as weyrlingmaster he had no say in the matter, he only had to hope whoever dealt with the candidates would whip them into shape in time for J’degar to take over their weyrling training. He was glad he only had to oversee a single day of chores with the candidates; he hated candidates, hated everything about them. Not to mention all of his free time was already taken up by his responsibilities as a weyrlingmaster. He could hardly be expected to do a candidatemaster's job on top of his own.

“It is no surprise to me that the candidates were in such a poor state for the hatching. It seems our resident candidatemaster was too busy playing hooky with Gl’wein to step up to her responsibilities and find an adequate replacement.” He sneered at Samara. It was no secret he held no fondness for the fellow Southerner, he hated all women fighting dragons. “Such blatant disregard for rules and responsibilities are only be expected from a woman.No doubt this female bronzerider will be just as irresponsible.”

He paused to give Ar’rex a nod, agreeing entirely with the other man’s opinion on the bronze. Something surely needed to be done. “It appears the searchriders aren’t doing their jobs properly either. Had more boys been searched the bronze make have picked a more suitable male instead of settling on that girl.” Not to mention they may not have had so many stands impressions. He had never seen such a messed up ratio before. Not to mention he was bitter that so many dragons found Theirs among the stands; had there been more candidates on the sands, maybe his weyrmate wouldn’t have been picked. What is done is done, GarMine. Taking it out on the weyrlings will not solve anything.

“It appears there have been miscommunications somewhere along the line,” J’dol finally cut in, sitting up straighter, though there was still laziness to his posture. He glanced around the room, giving Iirla a look that clearly showed he thought she should be resting. The woman was pushing herself too much, it was bound to backfire one of these days. “I don’t see anything wrong with a girl on a bronze. The dragons know best, so I don’t doubt the girl has what it takes to be a bronzerider.” J’dol didn’t see the problem at all; dragons impressed, weyrlings trained, life went on. It was silly fights over what the dragons looked like and who they impressed that had caused all the trouble with the Rebellion.

“No matter, the girl’s a weyrling now. I trust our weyrlingmasters will train her properly without any bias.” At that he gave a disapproving look at J’degar, knowing the brownrider tended to treat the female riders differently. “But there are more important things to worry about than a couple stands impressions and a girl on a bronze. Thread still remains our constant enemy. As long as the weyrlings become proper riders we shouldn’t be wasting our time worrying about them. Have the previous batch of weyrlings meshed well into the wings?” He reached up to rub at Spazz’s chin as the blue flit started to wake. He only hoped he could keep his pets under control until the meeting ended. He didn’t doubt that the meeting was going to be more headache than it was worth.

The topazrider could already see the divide in beliefs in the room. He couldn’t help but feel that the meeting would quickly degrade into a yelling contest of opinions. With a worried sigh, he glanced over at Ara and placed a hand on hers reassuringly. The last thing the greenrider needed was an extra batch of unnecessary stress.

Alyara quickly found that she had to bite her lip on more than one occasion. In fact, she was currently having to as she listened to someone else talking about the group that were most definitely her weyrlings. The offered hand from her weyrmate was greatly appreciated, and quickly taken, her own fingers lacing between J'dol's as she tried to keep calm and not outright yell at the lot of them. Instead, she gave herself a nice five seconds-no scratch that, ten seconds- to breathe before kicking Sevrin lightly in the back. " 'ey, do what Iirla said and sit up." The dragonless man raised an eye brow but straightened, shrugging his shoulders in a what-can-you-do fashion.

"Look, first of all I think we all know something needs to be done, that's why this meeting was put up in the first place. However, things aren't as bad as you all have decided to make it to be. First off, get off your sharding high runner and come to the realization that just because there's a girl riding a King, it doesn't mean she's any worse a leader than a guy. That is just plain rude." The greenrider stood up, not able to stay in one place, and walked behind her weyrmate to place a hand on his shoulder. "Second, I for one think for the time being we need a change in the dynamics for teaching. It seems that we've been taking each other's jobs as is, and yes I'm using we because I was going to go back to teaching as well, however I think that a mutual work-group of a few riders will be enough to cover the candidates and weyrlings both and not be so strict about who is with what group. Sometimes lee-way is a good thing."

She looked around to the different riders, then back at Iirla and J'dol with a slightly incline of her head. "Iro'is and J'dol are correct though, Thread is a major problem, as is our Holds. There hasn't been anyone to go and converse with the Lord and Lady Holders at Apolla and Sollace for quite some time if I'm not mistaken. Search riders not only deal with picking out candidates, but they also help to give us news. I think maybe we need to have a little survey of sorts in the wings asking who would like to go out on searches or sweeps. It might even be good to teach the older weyrlings a lesson about how to search and deal with Holders while on search."

Stifling a yawn against the back of her hand, and realizing that she hadn't taken a breath in a while, Ara stopped for a moment as if considering something Avirith was telling her. "The fact is, not all of the Wing positions are filled, and we need help covering everything I'm sure even among the Queen's Wing. I'm grateful that you've impressed another Queen, but as you said you are just a weyrling at this time...." I wish we still had the other two with us, or another Queen, or something. Just someone who could help pull rank a bit, you know what I mean Avirith.

The green however was simply chortling with incomprehensible laughter.

R'hard grimaced as the conversation started. Apparently he was smart to want to stay out of it; it seemed a fight was beginning to brew, and no matter which side he agreed with, he'd probably end up angering someone. The last thing R'hard wanted to do was make some enemies. It did seem silly to him that some of the riders were so caught up on this female bronzerider. Really, after the appearance of sub-queens and garnets, a female kingrider seemed tame in comparison.

Finally, at Kaith's urging, though, he did speak. "If finding enough candidates is a problem, perhaps we could also adjust the age limit of candidates accepted. This last hatching proved that dragonets are willing to take older candidates than are traditionally approved to stand, and even go out of their way to find them. Might as well make it official."

J’degar looked up in surprise as Iro’ris stormed into the room and immediately shot into sharing his opinion. It was such a vast difference from what he was used to when it came to the cook, and the surprise clearly showed on his face for a few moments before he managed to get his expression under control. He was beyond pleased to know one of the weyrwomen was, more or less, on his side. Perhaps the dragons really did know best. At the same time, Iro had become something that J’degar disliked; a mutant rider, and a queenrider at that. It was just wrong, though his Turns at Trelis had helped him come to terms with the new colours at least. At the very least, he tipped his head in thanks for Iro’ris’ support.

“If it wasn’t that bad, there wouldn’t be a need for this meeting at all, Alyara. As to females and leadership, you can’t honestly tell me you haven’t noticed that things have improved since Weyrleaders Vl’kan and R’hard were instated.” He glanced at the two ‘leaders before turning back to the greenrider. She was living proof of a woman’s inability to lead. She wanted to play nice and fix everything with hugs and kisses. They needed men in charge to make sure things could be dealt with with force when necessary. Take a survey to find searchriders? Shard it all, they could just tell everyone to do search and be done with it. “Women can be excellent leaders, sure, but their duties are within the Weyr alongside the headwoman. That weyrling will, no doubt, believe she can lead a wing, and that’s a man’s job. Always has been, always will.”

He shuffled through his skins after that for a moment, quickly pulling one out that listed off the wings and their ranking members. “Frankly, the positions in the wing are the responsibilities of the Wingleader. The Weyrleaders can’t be expected to set up the wingseconds and thirds for the other wings. Wingleaders S’val and S’bel are responsible for the members in their wings; they should know who is capable of filling the positions better than any other.” He rolled his eyes at the woman’s idea of ‘sharing’ the responsibilities. Shard it all, he hadn’t signed up for this crap! “You can do whatever you want with your weyrlings, but I’ll say this now. I want nothing to do with a group of candidates. Once was too much and I have better things to do with my time than babysit a bunch of hopeful idiots.”

He didn’t even like teaching the weyrlings! He missed being a member of a real wing, seeing the action he trained for day in and day out. He sat back, relaxing slightly without looking casual about the meeting. He nodded in agreement to the suggestion made by R’hard. “Perhaps having older candidates will ensure we won’t see such a blatant disregard for the rules and traditions of a hatching.” He couldn’t add any more to his thought though as an all too familiar face came strolling like he owned the place. Here, J’degar knew, he had no say in the matter. D’tri’s return was something the ‘Leaders would need to discuss. After all, rumor had it the topazrider had come into some rank in the Rebellion, what’s to say he wasn’t here as a spy?

---

J’dol groaned. How were they supposed to reach any agreements with this bunch? It was clear the opinions differed greatly and frankly, J’dol would rather be anywhere but here. He grinned broadly as the newest topazrider went ahead and showed his stuff, proud that the weyrling was that brave already. Maybe J’dol would be able to relax and entrust this fellow with work down the line? He could see a vacation in his future, woohoo! J’dol really, pay attention or you’ll miss something. Grumbling, he leaned forward, having only barely caught Iro’ris’ comment.

“That’s true. The Rebellion did give us quite a bit of trouble in the earlier days with stealing candidates. Have there been any reports of mysterious dragons in the area? It could be part of the problem.” He gave another lazy wave of his hand. Really, if the Rebellion was stealing candidates they would simply need to make sure the candidatemasters were working harder or something. Searchriders bringing in more candidates would likely fix that problem anyways. “What say we have the weyrlingmasters include a lesson or two on how to search potential candidates, and the proper etiquette for searching from the Holds? We get more searchriders and we don’t have to worry as much about potential candidates being missed.”

He yawned openly, not really caring if he was seen as a slacker. He got his work done when he needed to, so he could care less how others saw him. “Oh come on Ara, the queen’s wing is barely a wing anyways. I don’t really think we need a wingthird in any hurry… Iro’ris here will be part of it in a little over a Turn. We’ve held out this long already, whats another few months?”

He did, however, straighten up as both Samara and K’lin spoke of stepping down from their positions. K’lin had been a weyrlingmaster before J’dol impressed, it seemed wrong to think of him as anything else. “Well… the Nightsingers class will be graduating soon wont they?” He asked J’degar, who promptly nodded. “That’ll leave us with both you and Ara to take care of this new batch, you wont need more help will you?” Again, J’degar replied with a simple shake of his head. The junior weyrlord glanced up at an all too familiar voice at the same time as Kayath’s voice broke into his mind. That sharding wench is back! And taking away MY attention! Get rid of her Mine! Send her away again!

J’dol would do no such thing however. Instead, he shot up out of his chair and threw himself at the other topazrider. “D’tri!” He practically sang as he tackled the man. Screw being professional!