Staff Meeting

Writers: Duskdog, Heather, Sia
Date Posted: 3rd August 2024

Characters: T'lonas, M'thos, K'yne
Description: DFW's new Weyrlingstaff have a meeting, and K'yne takes notes to report back to Saibra.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 10 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: Saibra, J'ler, Kadira

T'lonas

M'thos

K'yne

K'yne took a deep breath as he smoothed his hair out of his eyes and
grabbed his notepad. It was his first meeting with the Weyrlingstaff.
He'd _met_ both T'lonas and M'thos, but this was an 'official' meeting
to discuss the Candidate curriculum. It was also his first opportunity
to take notes on the ideas and philosophies of both men.

Did he think there was anything nefarious going on with the new
Weyrlingmaster and his 'second? No. But was Saibra expecting a report
from him? Yes. So he would humor her by taking notes and "reporting
back" on what he was sure would be a normal, run-of-the-mill meeting.

Arriving at the conference room first, the brownrider took a seat,
flipped open his notepad, and fished in his shirt pocket for his
pencil.

M'thos arrived next, sliding into the chair next to K'yne with ease.
"The Weyrling Barracks are so empty now!" He declared, if only to fill
the silence in the space. "It's just poor J'ler now."

"I suppose he'll be learning his lesson, won't he?" T'lonas remarked
cheerfully as he rounded the doorframe into the room, notebook under
his arm and mug of klah in hand. "It's a shame because I think he's a
good sort with lots of promise, but ultimately I think he'll be a
better rider because of it. Perhaps working with the next class will
inspire him to join us someday."

He pulled out a chair and sat, laying his notebook out in front of him
and taking a sip of klah. "Good morning, gentlemen, I do hope you're
enjoying the day. Rather cloudy, but it gives a nice grey wash to the
world that only makes the sunny days stand out more, eh?"

K'yne scratched two words - 'hyper optimistic' - in tiny letters onto
his paper. "The clouds are nice," he agreed.

"Good morning, T'lonas." M'thos said just as brightly and tried to
meet K'yne's eyes with a knowing grin. T'lonas was a wholesome sort.
"I can support a kid wanting to stand up for his sister." He added.
"But there are better ways to do it. And that's the best part of
parenting, isn't it? When you can agree with them in principle, but
not in action. I'll be lucky if any of mine end up misbehaving as
mildly as that."

"I don't know if I'd call 'trying to fight a rider from another Weyr'
mild, exactly, but I can sympathize with the fact that he was feeling
powerless to help his sister in any other way, at least," T'lonas
said. "That said, I intend to make certain that he understands _why_
it was unacceptable behavior. Not just because of duty and
responsibility and rules -- that's important, of course -- but
because... well, it was unproductive. Solves nothing, even if he had
succeeded. I'd like our young riders to be better critical thinkers
than that. 'What do you intend to accomplish?' is an important
question that I wish more riders asked themselves."

K'yne wrote 'critical thinking skills' on his notepad and underlined
it three times. "The fact that he tried to lie to a Wingleader and
Wingsecond about it," he pointed to himself, "is what concerned me
most. And even once the ruse was up, he still refused to really
acknowledge it."

T'lonas rested his arms on the table in front of him and steepled his
fingers, nodding slowly in acknowledgement. "Yes, that's a problem,
too. We'll need to emphasize duty -- to your superiors and to your
wingmates. Trust is an important thing when you have to rely on one
another in Threadfall. J'ler is a sensitive enough young man that I
think we can appeal to that. And as for the newer classes, I'd like to
begin establishing that early on. Bonding with one another,
understanding how valuable that sort of connection -- and faith in one
another -- is, how very essential. And how it translates to the bigger
picture, to future wings, and to the Weyr itself."

"It's that last part that was missing, surely." M'thos said. "The
bigger picture piece. It's one thing to trust and have faith in your
clutchmates, or your Wingmates, it's when the younger riders don't
have faith in their elders and superiors is the problem. Why not bring
some of the Wingleadership down early on? Get some faces behind the
names."

'Bring Leadership down _early_' K'yne jotted in his notebook and then
put a quick sketch of a laughing face beside of it. Having just come
from being a Wingsecond, he knew how busy Wingleadership could be, and
trying to find breaks to handhold Weyrlings, when that was the
Weyrlingstaff's job, was going to make quite a few Wingleaders cranky.
He looked forward to seeing it.

"I think in the past they've had Weyrlings shadow adult riders, but I
think that's later, so maybe making those connections earlier could be
beneficial," K'yne conceded.

"Oh, I like that!" T'lonas jotted down his own notes. "I'm not sure if
the previous staff left any notes or lists as to who they used before,
but it's probably worth re-evaluating, anyway. If either of you have
any suggestions for good, dependable wingriders who would be good
influences and might be willing, please write them down for me and we
can vet them and narrow it down the next time we meet. In the
meantime, I'll consider where it might be appropriate to introduce it
into the earlier curriculum, and how." He continued writing for a
moment before continuing. "I'm also concerned about how to handle the
presence of another female bluerider, should such a thing happen again
-- and I expect it will, eventually. The Weyrwoman and I spoke about
it, and neither of us wants a repeat of what happened with Kadira.
Frankly, I'm not sure that Kadira felt adequately supported during her
weyrlinghood, and that's not acceptable. It's difficult to confidently
face the scrutiny of others without feeling personally secure. My
intention is for us to treat them exactly like any other weyrling as
much as possible. I want them to realize that they _belong_, and I
want the rest of the class to understand that, as well. But we'll have
to keep their safety in mind, of course, even moreso than we normally
would -- we'll need to remain vigilant for any would-be gawkers, or
bullies, or, Faranth forbid, worse. If we never have another girl
Impress blue, we won't need to worry about it... but better to be
prepared than be scrambling when the need arises. That said, I plan to
make certain that all the weyrlings have access to mindhealers, as
well. Impression is quite a lot, as you know -- moreso for some than
for others -- and the culture shock does sometimes trip up those from
outside the Weyr. No sense losing a weyrling due to instability that
should be entirely treatable."

"Even more of a reason to bother the Wingleadership, too, and maybe
the Lower Caverns." M'thos added. It was easy to get caught up in
T'lonas' enthusiasm, and he shot K'yne a well-meaning grin. "Get
everyone on the same page about the next one not being a spectacle.
The rest of us trying to catch a look at the first female bluerider
surely didn't help. It won't stop some folks, but we can at least
crack down on the worst of the rubbernecking."

"Maybe a conversation with the Wingleaders on what they can do to
promote understanding of a female bluerider within their own Wings?"
K'yne suggested.

"Indeed," T'lonas agreed, jotting that down. "This will need to be a
collaborative effort, wherever possible. It's a shift in culture, and
that doesn't happen easily, or quickly! While we're at it, I would
like to know if the Wingleaders feel their new wingriders have been
lacking in any particular part of their training, so that we can focus
on patching that gap of knowledge from here on out. I've no desire to
speak ill of my predecessor because frankly I barely knew the man, but
clearly the Weyrwoman felt there were issues. Nobody would see that
better than the wingleadership who have been receiving these
graduating pairs."

He looked up at M'thos and K'yne. "Did either of you notice anything
in particular when you were in the Wings? Or heard anything?"

M'thos could only shrug at that. "Aside from them looking younger and
younger each year? It's hard to say. I don't think the lessons were
particularly lacking in content or practice, but that the context of
it hasn't changed despite how much the Weyr has. We've got more
Searched kids than ever before, women on blue dragons, River Bluff
expats...that shift in culture, as you said. The weyrling curriculum
hasn't changed much in the decades since we were weyrlings."

"Some of the shift could be having more Candidates from outside the
Weyr than in previous Turns. During the Interval, Dragonsfall could
provide its small clutches with plenty of Candidates from within the
Weyr, but now, larger clutches, more producing queens... Many
Candidates are coming from holds, halls, and elsewhere that didn't
benefit from growing up with Weyr culture." K'yne had especially
noticed an increase in non-Weyr Candidates since one of Chioneth's
green hatchlings had died without finding a lifemate on the Sands.

T'lonas nodded throughtfully. "Hrm, yes... that's certainly an issue
faced by every Weyr these days, I think, to varying degrees. Perhaps
more here if Searches have been ramped up. Well, we'll just have to
make sure we're addressing that sooner rather than later: making
certain that our candidates are adjusting smoothly to their new home,
since it may well become permanent. That's something else to
brainstorm on -- gather your thoughts on it, and next meeting we'll
discuss it and finalize a plan to put into action. We'll get it all
sorted." He made a note, smiling to himself. "Is there anything in
particular either of you would like to bring to my attention today?"

"No, sir." K'yne flipped his notepad shut and shoved it back into his
shirt pocket.

"No sir." M'thos echoed with a grin.

"Very well, then." T'lonas smiled, shutting his own notepad. "Adjourned until next sevenday. Have a beautiful rest of your day!"

Last updated on the August 29th 2024

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