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Post by Felina on Dec 30, 2008 8:00:57 GMT -5
Her mind held a list stretching from one end of Pern to the other, an unbroken line of defeat marching endlessly onward. Upon it were scribbled in letters unseen all of the things that Corenne had dreamed of but never achieved, the things she had wanted and wished for but never received. Gone were the elder days when she could believe that a simple thought could deliver her a miracle.
Thou art a cruel mistress, Time, with all your tricksome ways! Were it not for thee inevitably passing too quickly by, and all the heartbreak carried on thy treacherous winds, how different might things have been! But alas!, that way was not to be.
Instead stood she in her new room that day, driven there by the deep snows outside, with little save a name, a list, and a hope, however frail. And what a silly hope it was, wrought of rumors and the words of one man, nothing more. 'Twas little place for her, the weyr, with dragons and glory. Those things, no, they were not for her. But perhaps, the whers, those who lived in the dark as did she, perhaps she could find a place with them. As one of them, almost.
It was not, after all, as though she would ever fit in among the other 'folk, those others who had never known despair. Let her sink into obscurity, with or without a kindred soul.
The barracks were small; Corenne could walk a circle around it in forty paces. But, then, it was not as though any one of them, the Candidates who would likely be forgotten shortly, would be there long. The eggs would hatch, and all parties concerned would move on or go back to what they had done before.
In silence wrote she upon that list:
"A'tair, A'tair, wherefore art thou A'tair? Deny thy dragon and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, let me know as such, and I'll not linger in this way. 'Tis not thy name that is my enemy, but thy life, in which I cannot take part."
And with that she closed the pages, that chapter of her life, and resigned to forget who once she had been.
((xD I'm guilty of changing tenses in the middle, and then switching back. Oh well!))
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Post by meah on Jan 1, 2009 2:22:04 GMT -5
Emme practically flew down the dark passage to their quarters, shouting behind her. "Thou shalt fail in your attempt to conquer me in this footrace, Tanawic!" She loved racing people; it made her feel like she did when she was small. It made her feel happy and silly. So she'd challenged Tanawic to a race, especially after she had spent the entire time the group had been eating watching him stare off into space sadly. He seemed sad, and playing around and acting goofy would probably make him feel better. It always made her feel better.
She was so busy laughing at how slow Tan was that she didn't even realize that there was someone else in their collective room until she nearly ran into the girl. She'd seen the girl around before, but she'd never bothered to learn her name. The girl was rather quiet, so Emme hadn't really interacted with her much. She ought to at least greet the kid, seeing as she'd nearly crashed into her and all that. "Many apologies, miss. I didst not realize thou wast seated hither.
Emme was too unobservant to notice that the girl hadn't even seen her and she could have saved herself the humiliation of apologizing, assuming she actually got embarrassed. But she didn't notice this little tidbit of information, and she certainly didn't notice the reason why that would have been impossible. Until Tan shook his head sadly at her. "Why art though shaking thy head at me?"
She glared angrily at him. He would pay for being mean to her. She turned away from the boy and thrust a hand in the girl's face, being completely friendly and equally unobservant. "My name is Emmeline. It is quite the pleasure to meet thou, even under such queer circumstances as these."
Tanawic chased after the laughing blond girl, not putting much effort into his running. She was a like a flame, and if you reached too close in the wrong direction, you were going to get burned. There was no way he was going to alienate one of his closest friends, one of the fellow whercandidates, because if he lost them, he would have no one. It was a no-brainer to let her win. His slow lope gave him a chance to thing about Raina, anyway.
Raina was his favorite person at Araelen. His favorite person in all Pern. But she would get mad at him if he made Emme mad, and he would die if Raina were angry with him. Anyone else could burn with the thread for all he cared, as long as Raina wasn't angry with him.
When he caught up with Emme apologizing to Corenne for nearly running into her, he almost laughed. Almost. It was comical, really, but he had a modicum of self-control. Instead, he shook his head, shocked that she was so oblivious to Corenne's situation. "She cannot see thou, Emmeline."
He had met Corenne a few times, and he was, of course, on the welcoming committee to their little band of outcasts when she'd been sent to their dungeon-like barracks. He wasn't quite sure what he thought of her yet, but she was part of the family for the moment.
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Post by Felina on Jan 4, 2009 8:09:30 GMT -5
Laughing voices were coming down the corridor; some of the louder wher candidates, undoubtedly. Corenne fought to restrain a sigh, as it was unlikely a wher would work well with people used to the freedom to shout and laugh and run as they pleased. The dark was not a place for that, and the dark was the only place for a wher. One or the other would be forced to keep their natures in check, and it was not like to be the wher.
"'Tis quite all right," she said to the first voice, a girl. A bit loud, perhaps, but the tone was all right. She'd be sure to remember it, if only for the volume. "After all, 'twas at least in part mine own fault, standing in the middle of the room like this and in thy way. Let me not detain thee, I am sure thou hast other places to be."
It was the second voice, the one she recognized, that started to get on her nerves somewhat. She was blind, not deaf, did he think that she could not hear the two of them coming? Footsteps on bare stone were rather easy to notice, especially when the owners of said footsteps were running. Ignorant fool, she hoped that he Impressed a wher, if only so that he, too, would be forced to be in the darkness as well. Then he would, perhaps, not be so utterly stupid about it.
"Or if thou hast nowhere else, thou art welcome to stay. 'Tis not my place to shoo you out of here, after all, when we all must share it. 'Tis a pleasure to meet thee, Emmeline. I am Corenne. And thou art Tanawic, am I correct? I recognize thy voice, I believe."
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Post by meah on Jan 4, 2009 14:10:49 GMT -5
"I am sure thou hast other places to be."
Emme stared at the girl. Did she have no idea what they did down here? Emme, at least, never had anything to do. Which was why she resorted to acting like a small child and running around. Or moping. She did a lot of that, too. Where on Pern else could she go without being treated like scum for what she was? Certainly no one at the Weyr wanted to associate with the Whercandidates. Emmeline had no other place to be, contrary to what this girl seemed to assume.
"Nay, there be no other places to go. Pleasure, indeed, Corenne. Aye, that one's Tanawic, pain though he be in mine buttocks." She giggled softly. That wasn't even funny. At all. Why had she laughed? "I aplogize. Even mine jokes lack the humor they ought."
Emme smiled at Corenne apologetically and then remembered that the girl wouldn't see her smile anyway. She'd never met someone blind before, but the way Tan went about dealing with it seemed overly tactless, even for him. Which was saying something, because the first words he'd said to her were something along the lines of 'grow up, softy. this is the real world, kid, and you'd do to remember that.' Needless to say, they had an interesting friendship, in which Emme spent a great deal of time wishing Tanawic were dead.
Tanawic scowled at Emme. He wasn't annoying. He was honest, and if she couldn't take that, she could leave. He'd told her as much long ago, and it seems she'd never taken it to heart. She never took anything he said seriously. He seriously doubted if she ever would, and it annoyed him to no end.
Glowering at the presumptuous brat, he turned to leave. "'Twas nice to see thou, Corenne. I shalt take mine leave now." And the boy marched angrily out of the room. Sometimes he hated his fellow whercandidates. They just didn't understand that things needed to be out in the open and people ought to be able to speak for themselves. He wanted to talk to Raina. It would calm him down.
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Post by Felina on Jan 9, 2009 20:11:06 GMT -5
((Y'know, I think I'm just going to have Corenne speak like this all the time. It suits her.))
Undoubtedly both of the other wher candidates there thought her a fool. Perhaps she was one, chasing for so long after a man she could never have, believing herself to be the same as everyone else. Oh, between take it, she was a fool! But there were some things that didn't change. For instance, it didn't change the fact that they were all stuck in the same sinking boat, watching their lives slowly go down into a place from which there was no escape. They were marked by the whers now; whether or not they Impressed, they were forever changed by the thing that they had been willing to at least try. Of course there was nowhere else for a wher Candidate to go, because the reason they were down here in the first place was that nobody else would have them.
"I understand what it is that thou sayest," Corenne said. "I know why we are here, why we have been driven to this dampest of places. We will not be welcomed back even after this is all over, methinks. What will happen to those who do not find a partner among the whers?"
But the other boy, Tanawic, was leaving. Likely he was having difficulty coming to terms with the reality of his situation here, or some such thing. "Aye, 'twas nice to see thee as well."
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Post by meah on Jan 11, 2009 0:26:00 GMT -5
Emme waved sweetly to Tan, glad he was leaving. He was being such a jerk today anyway. Good riddance to bad rubbish, in her opinion. Not a redeeming quality to the boy. It was no wonder he'd gotten stuffed down here in the dungeon wher candidacy quarters.
She nodded at Corenne. Of course, the girl was right. Corenne seemed to be a brilliant pragmatist, considering their circumstances. Their circumstances were just plain boring, being stuck in a pit until the eggs hatched, after which they would be stuck in the dark for the rest of their natural lives with what she'd heard was a ugly beast to care for for the rest of her natural life. Not that she'd seen Neisk yet, so perhaps whichever one she impressed would be beautiful. It would be hers, after all. Her wher would be the most amazing of them all, obviously. There was no way around that.
"But in the end, it shall all turn out alright. After all, thou has thyself and thine comrades, mineself included."
Not that their comrades were all that great. Take Tan for example. He was a jerk, even if Raina did temper him a bit. He was still a mean jerk. Overprotective of all the whercandidates and probably a loyal companion in battle, but still a right arse.
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