The Complaints Department

Writers: Estelle, Halyonix
Date Posted: 15th January 2025

Characters: Alyena, Oriene
Description: Oriene helps the Headwoman with some interesting duties
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 4, day 18 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Tirraze

Oriene

Notes:
~~~~~~~~~~

Having helped Tirraze's mother plenty with tasks in the Lower Caverns,
Oriene was used to being paired with the Headwoman's team. Candidates
were, after all, a sort of catch-all hands to help with whatever chores
needed to be done. Oriene had scrubbed plenty of pots for sure.

Unsure of what task awaited her today though, Oriene met Alyena in the
Lower Caverns. "Good morning!" she greeted the new Headwoman.

"Good morning, Oriene." Alyena smiled warmly in welcome, a sheaf of
hides in her arms. She knew most of the Candidates by name from her time
as an assistant. Many had been here longer than she had, which could be
a great help - even after more than a Turn she could still be surprised
by the Weyr. "How are you today? I hope you'll be pleased to hear that
there's no scrubbing in store this morning."

"Oh, that's so good to hear," Oriene said with a laugh. She looked at
her fingers and then wiggled them theatrically. "The last time I
scrubbed the pots, my fingers were still wrinkled the next day!" She was
grinning though. She wouldn't mind being useful. "So what are we doing
today then?"

"These are reports about various problems in the weyrs and living
quarters." Alyena handed the armful of hides to Oriene. "They've built
up rather during the transfer between my predecessor and myself and I
don't want the weyrfolk to think I'm ignoring them, so my plan for this
morning is to visit as many as I can. I need someone to take notes about
what the situation is and what we plan to do to fix it. How does that
sound?"

"Perfect!" Oriene replied. She clapped her hands excitedly. "Definitely
something better than scrubbing. I've always wondered what the interiors
of some of the dragonrider weyrs look like. I imagine they're all
messy," she said with a giggle. She took the hides. Picking up the first
one, she said, "This says that the light keeps flickering in rider
T'balis's weyr. So, maybe we start there?" That seemed easy enough,
aside from getting up to the weyr. But there were usually weyrlings
eager to ferry people up and down and most of the weyrs had stairs that
reached them.

"Yes, if there's a fault, we can get one of the technicians to look at
it today and perhaps have it fixed by the evening." Alyena glanced at
the hide over her shoulder. "It looks like he's in a cliffside weyr, so
we'll get a dragon ride!" Her spirits lifted at the prospect. Since her
promotion she didn't get nearly as many opportunities to ride as in the
early days, when she'd worked cleaning weyrs.

"Good morning!" greeted the weyrling on elevator duty. His brown dragon
trilled happily as he knelt for the two women to mount. A quick lift up
and they were on the high weyr.

"Thank you!" Oriene piped cheerily as she slid off.

"We'll wait here for you so you don't have to call down," the weyrling
said. "Hey G'lion, you've got visitors! The Headwoman and her assistant."

A blue dragon poked his head out of the weyr entrance, followed by his
rider. They looked young to Alyena - or at least, the man did, she was
never quite sure about dragons - which explained the location of the
weyr. These weyrs had been some of the latest to be connected to the
electrical supply, and had no ground access, so they weren't in the
highest demand. They did have a lovely ocean view, though.

"Good day, ma'am." G'lion seemed taken aback by their appearance. "Uhm -
would you like to come in? I'm, ah, I haven't had time to tidy up yet..."

"That's quite all right, Bluerider. I know dragonriders have a lot to do
besides tidy their weyrs," Alyena replied, hiding a smile. "We're here
about this report of a flickering light?"

"Oh - yes! I can show you - well, I'm not sure what it'll do. We haven't
really been using it, we went back to glows instead because it was so
annoying. Come on in."

Oriene followed Alyena and went to the switch. "Oh, I can see why you
would go back to glows," she remarked, staring up at the flickering
light. "That's annoying for sure." She knew nothing about the bulbs but
tried to record as much detail as possible. "We'll get this to the
technicians and they'll get it fixed for sure! Is there anything else we
need to get fixed?"

"Oh, no, just that. Although..."

"Is there anything?" Alyena asked. "It's best if we can get it all seen
to at once."

"Well, not in here, but there might be something in that pile about my
old weyr." G'lion nodded towards the hides that Oriene was carrying.
"You see, I had this small disagreement with my neighbor in the next
weyr over, so when T'balis asked if anyone wanted to swap weyrs with
him, I agreed. I might not have been completely open and honest about
the, ah, problem," he admitted. "I suppose it served me right to get his
flickering light. But now that mine is being fixed, I feel guilty about
it. Maybe you could help him out too?"

The headwoman tilted her head enquiringly. "What kind of a problem are
we talking about?"

"Noise," the bluerider said, grimacing. "I mean, I'm no holder...no
offense, ma'am. I like a bit of fun now and then, but my neighbor, if
she wasn't having parties, it was screaming rows in the middle of the
night with one of her mates. Or making up after the row. Loudly. I
didn't want to rat on her to her wingleader, so I took the chance to
move. T'balis isn't as tolerant as me, so you might have heard from him."

"I'll certainly look into it. Thank you for letting me know." That
sounded trickier to deal with than a broken light, but Alyena decided
she'd better see what the situation was in case it escalated. She walked
out onto the weyr ledge and while they waited for the weyrling to return
to collect them, she turned to Oriene. "Can you find anything in those
reports about a noise complaint?"

Oriene nodded as she rifled through the papers. She found one that
looked like it matched and blushed slightly. "Um...well, G'lion was
right about it being a complaint. He isn't the only one. Her name is
Taina. Muronath's rider."

"Oh, we're going to see her?" the brown weyrling asked excitedly. And
then, composing himself, he said, "I uh...she's really pretty. Or so I
heard."

Alyena hid a smile as she studied the complaint. From what was written
there, Taina's neighbors were not quite as charmed. "It looks as though
we are indeed going to pay her a visit. Could you ask your dragon to
check with Muronath if she's in her weyr?"

The weyrling nodded. He looked at his dragon while they talked. Then a
blush crept over his face. "She's um...indisposed at the moment," he
relayed to the Headwoman.

"Figures," G'lion muttered darkly.

Trying to smother an awkward smile with her hand, Oriene looked at Alyena.

"I see." Alyena kept her expression bland. "Well, could you please tell
Greenrider Taina that the Headwoman is on her way to pay her a visit,
but that I'd be happy to stop by the infirmary to pick up some herbal
tea if she's feeling poorly. Say, five minutes?" That ought to be just
long enough for the greenrider to usher out any overnight 'guests', but
not to hide the evidence of loud partying.

The blush deepened but the weyrling said, "Yes, Headwoman," and relayed
her words through his dragon. "Ramenith says that we're clear to come
up," he reported a few moments later. The group looked up as a flurry of
blue wings dashed away, undoubtedly Taina's guest. Oriene stifled
another giggle behind her hand.The women piled aboard their ferry and
Ramenith took a quick hop up to the next ledge.

Alyena accepted the young brownrider's hand to help her down and greeted
the green dragon who was watching them with curiosity from her sunny
spot. Despite the situation, Taina was still a dragonrider and it would
be rude to walk in unannounced. "Good morning, Muronath. We've come to
visit your rider. May we go in?"

Muranoth sniffed primly but stepped aside to let them in.

"Oh, _hello_ Headwoman!" Taina said with a saccarine smile. "And to what
do I owe the pleasure today?"

"Good morning, Greenrider. This is Oriene, who's assisting me today."
Alyena glanced around the weyr, noticing the scattered clothes and an
empty bottle and glasses on a side table. One of them had been knocked
over, creating a fresh red wine spill on top of other stains. Either
Taina wasn't a very tidy person, or she was recovering from one of the
nights her fellow riders had been complaining about - or both. "We're
visiting weyrs to make sure that every dragonpair has a suitable living
space and to arrange for any problems to be cleared up: anything that
needs mending or replacing, making sure it's not too hot or cold, any
problems with noise, or pests..."

She smiled warmly. "Do you have any? Problems with your weyr, I mean?"

"Oh, no, no problems," Taina said with a dainty, haughty laugh. "Besides
it getting a bit drafty on stormy nights and a perpetually small ledge.
Muranoth just gives up some days and sits on the Rim instead. But I
don't suppose those are things that _you_ can fix."

"Not the ledge, no," Alyena admitted. "But if you're suffering from
drafts, we could find you a thicker curtain for your sleeping area. That
might help at night, at least. Speaking of nights... I understand you
like to entertain friends here quite often?"

Taina made a purring laughter of a sound. "Well, some of them are
entertaining," she said. "Most are a bit boring. But don't tell boys
that. It hurts their fragile egos."

"Oh, I'm sure they can't all be that bad. Your neighbors mentioned that
you've been spending your nights in a way that sounded anything but
boring..." The Headwoman looked thoughtful, as if trying to recall the
details. "Oriene, do you have the report?"

"Right here, Headwoman," Oriene said, producing said report with a
little flourish. She understood that people liked sex -- it was a Weyr
after all -- but it was also important to just be considerate! Keeping
your neighbors up all night was just rude.

Alyena took it from Oriene and looked over it as if she was reading it
for the first time. "Oh. Oh dear." She shook her head at one particular
phrase. "Yes, I can see their point. That does sound irritating."

Looking up, she saw that the greenrider wasn't looking particularly
repentant. "Well, we will have to find a solution to this; everyone is
entitled to express themselves, but we can't have dragonriders losing
out on sleep. One possibility would be to move you and Muronath to one
of the cliffside weyrs. They're not as convenient as the Weyr-side, but
the sound of the waves covers a great deal, and I think I know of one
next to an elderly greenrider who's quite hard of hearing."

Taina started laughing. "You...want to _move_ me?" she recapped. Another
delighted but haughty laugh. "This is my weyr though! What if I like it
here? Why don't those complainers move?"

"Well, some might think it rather strange for you to be surrounded by
empty weyrs," Alyena said mildly. "They might wonder if you had some
kind of contagious disease. Besides, I thought you said your ledge was
too small?"

The greenrider's expression turned equal parts sweet and snark. "I see
what you're doing here. Fine. I won't argue with you. Send me a few
weyrlings to help move my stuff and I won't be in your hair anymore."

"Thank you, greenrider, that's most considerate. I have just the right
young man for the job," Alyena said, glancing at the brown weyrling, who
perked up immediately and did his best to look strong and eager to
assist. "He'll be with you once he's finished his transport duty. Now,
we'd better leave you to your packing. Oriene, where are we off to next?"

"Got it right here!" Oriene replied brightly. This was turning out to be
way more interesting than she had imagined!

Last updated on the January 27th 2025

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The Complaints Department