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Take A Chance on Me [Arthro]
Topic Started: Jun 2 2018, 10:56 PM (89 Views)
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Lily had come to a decision. Somebody needed to start mending the bridges. And that someone was going to be her. She could only imagine the sorts of vile epithets and insults the Bendenites had heard, words they'd done nothing to deserve any of it. So she'd picked some pretty flowers, tied them with a ribbon and gotten fresh bubbly pies.

Eridieth, who had agreed to take her, swooped down on the first bronzerider's ledge as Lily fixed a welcoming smile on her face, Are you sure this is a good idea? What if they're like Severus and don't like garnet riders? I've heard Benden is very traditional...

I'm sure they still have garnets. Everywhere has garnets. And if they have a problem with that...Then they don't belong here anyway and I don't need to welcome them.

She wasn't a glutton for punishment and wasn't going to try to bring hidebound, discriminatory assholes into the Fort community. She simply wanted to give the newcomers a chance.
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ArthropodEyes
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Weyrling
Mordeth noted the arrival of the Fort garnet with the dragon-eye equivalent of a raised eyebrow. He could chase her off, but letting her land and deliver her rider was going to be ever so much more amusing. A little chaos would help shake things up, just what K'osh needed, even if he didn't know it himself.

"K'osh, dear, you have company," he intoned, making sure the garnet and her rider both heard. He closed his eyelids to mere slits, looking positively predatory.
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The hair on the back of Lily's neck rose as she dismounted but that was just being silly. Everything was fine. The bronzerider would be here soon and she was sure he'd be happy to know not all the weyr was reflexively aligned against him. If the bronze was watching her a bit too closely now...well...he didn't know yet she wasn't another enemy come to bring them grief.

"Thank you," she said to the dragon with a polite nod as Eridieth glared. Apparently this was the Benden bronze she'd met and disliked.

I'm sure he just comes from somewhere with different values. He'll learn, Lily soothed. Although if he upset Eridieth again...obviously she would take her dragon's side.
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ArthropodEyes
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K'osh didn't like the sound of Mordeth's half-greeting-half-warning. It had the whiff of trouble about it. He put his tactical notes down quietly and listened. Whoever it was, they were lurking outside, waiting, for he could hear no movement. All senses on alert, he strode towards the weyr's entrance, stopping while still out of view.

K'osh balanced lightly on the balls of his feet, one hand on the knife at his belt, as he called out, "Who is it? Come on in, I don't bite."
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Lily came in. The Benden bronzerider looked like a normal enough rider. Dark hair, green eyes, caution in his voice and bearing. She smiled the sort of smile that was meant to reassure and show she was friendly, not here to threaten, "I'm Lily of Garnet Eridieth. Here to personally welcome you to Fort. I brought presents."

Someone had to break the ice if their new arrivals were ever to fully assimilate. Which she hoped they would. Benden was poison. That didn't mean all its people deserved to be left to their fate.

Eridieth stayed well away from Mordeth. Maybe she should warn Nornth too...Because he was AWFUL.
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ArthropodEyes
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The woman looked harmless enough, but that meant nothing. Looks could be very very deceiving. On the other hand, she was in his weyr, on his turf, as it were, even though that turf was borrowed for the moment. With Mordeth right outside, K'osh doubted there was any real danger. He discreetly removed his hand from the belt knife.

"Won't you come in," he waved her inside. "How kind of you to bring these," he looked to see exactly what she'd brought, "gifts." This too was almost certainly a set-up, just like the bath incident, but he was interested to see how far she would take it before unleashing her ploy, whatever that turned out to be.

"Why don't you have a seat while I fetch something to put the flowers in. These are local from Fort, I take it?" Neither rude nor precisely welcoming in tone, he was going to let the scenario play itself out. Garnet riders were part of the corruption he was here to root out; perhaps she would be the key to her own undoing.
Edited by ArthropodEyes, Jun 4 2018, 01:16 PM.
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"From the gardens, yes. Don't worry. We don't let greenery grow uncontrolled here anymore than you do at Benden," Lily assured him. She assumed that was the reason behind his tone. Nobody lived as a rider for very long without developing a healthy caution for anything thread could consume.

She took a seat and smiled at the bronzerider, the same friendly smile she'd give Fortian, as she continued, "Do you have any questions about Fort? I understand that a few people are hostile but I promise you, there are plenty of us happy to welcome you too. It really is a beautiful weyr. Just a bit suspicious given the history between us and Benden."

Maybe if this worked out, the Bendenites would see that it could be different and reform themselves as High Reaches had.
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The flowers went into a simple clay pot, and the pies went on a wooden tray which K'osh placed on the table next to his guest. The remark about the greenery was a bit odd. It hadn't even entered his mind that there might be such an issue. Perhaps he should revise his thinking. Could things here be even worse than he imagined? His imagination was pretty vivid already.

K'osh got out two mugs and some wine. This was going to take alcohol to get through, no question. "I have plenty of questions. But would you like something to drink? Benden's finest."
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"That would be lovely," Lily smiled as she accepted a cup. He really didn't seem so bad at all. This was what happened when you gave people the benefit of the doubt- you had good conversation over a cup of fine Benden red. She smiled and sipped gingerly. Not enough to go to her head, as she planned on making more visits today, but enough to enjoy the rich taste. Some Fortians might not care for Benden, but nobody could deny their wine was excellent, "Thank you. I brought bubbly pie for you if you'd like some."
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ArthropodEyes
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K'osh had to be very careful. On the one hand he needed to plumb his guest for information, seeming sociable, but he knew his tolerance for alcohol was very low. It would be a fine line he would be skirting, and he needed all his wits about him.

K'osh wasn't really a fan of bubbly pies but he took a small piece, in keeping with his air of sociability, and nibbled on it. "So, tell me about yourself, and about Fort's history." He leaned back, trying to affect a casual air. "How did you wind up with your," he mostly suppressed a grimace, "garnet?"
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"The usual way I suppose," Lily shrugged as she took another drink of her wine, "I was Searched from a nearby cothold, accepted and came to stand. I Impressed my first time standing, to Eridieth. It was gold Macath's only clutch here before well...you know."

Macath had come from Benden too. Then she'd died in Threadfall. It had been terrible. One of too many queens they'd lost.

"I don't suppose I know much more about Fort's history than anyone else does but I can try," she offered politely, "What sort of things are you interested in?"

It was only natural to want to learn about the place you now called home. Lily would steer him towards the Harpers. Maybe if everyone saw he was trying, they'd let him in instead of being reflexively hostile.
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ArthropodEyes
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[Hoo boy, if this understanding of Macath's role is off, please let me know. Pulling it out of my *ss!]

K'osh did grimace this time. Macath's story was known to all at Benden and her memory was honored, for all that she had produced garnet offspring. She had sacrificed herself so that other dragons and their riders could live, finding their way out of between to a new strange land. No matter if the news that came out of that weyr now was no better than at Fort, where corruption was rampant.

"Yes, she will not be forgotten."

K'osh took a very small sip of the wine, just for fortification. Now was the hard part, to fish for information without seeming to. As long as he had to deal with a garnet rider close up, he might as well try to understand what sort of person impressed a mutant. Perhaps they could take preventative measures.

"Had you dreamed of being a rider before you were searched? Perhaps you had riders among your ancestry?" Kosh inquired politely.



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"Yes but no more than most children do," Lily explained with a dreamy smile. Those had been happy days, when she'd first been Searched and the world had seemed so large and grand, "I don't believe I had any riders in my lineage. If I did no one ever mentioned them. The rest of my family is still back at our hold- my parents and my sister and my nephew."

Last she'd heard, her sister was married with a son. Lily had asked to visit. Petunia had said no, that she didn't want her child around a garnetrider's corrupting influence. It was probably her new husband talking. She remembered him- a myopic, unpleasant man who couldn't stand anything new or different. What her sister had ever seen in him...
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ArthropodEyes
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"I see," Kosh replied, settling back in his chair and wondering if he dared take another sip of the wine. A very small one couldn't hurt, he decided, and did so. "And none of them were found suitable, only you? Of course only your sister would have been young enough, I suppose."

K'osh mulled the information over. Perhaps the background or quality of the searcher played a role? "I suppose that day must have remained engraved in your memory, the life-changing day that you were searched. What was that like for you?" Weyrborn himself, he had never had to be 'searched'; maybe that was where the whole experiment had gone wrong, in bringing in outsiders to stand as candidates?

"Do have more of the wine, there's plenty more where that came from," K'osh gestured at Lilian's mug.
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"I'm fine. Really," Lily said with a shake of her head as she glanced at her still half full cup, "I have practice later today and need to stay sober enough to fly. But you should feel free. No need to curtail your enjoyment on my behalf."

It was his wine in the first place and clearly a quite good vintage that she doubted he'd want to go to waste. She'd never been much for wine anyway so she didn't mind just watching.

Her eyes were sad as she said, "One of my friends was Searched too. We were so excited. But no. My sister wasn't...wasn't acceptable. She asked if she could go anyway and just TRY but it wasn't allowed. I guess there isn't that much room in the candidate barracks...It's too bad as she would have made a good rider. I miss her."
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