Insomnia

Writers: Emma, Len
Date Posted: 2nd November 2010

Characters: Teseada, G'wen
Description: Teseada and Galwen can't sleep and talk about boys and bullies
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 11, day 19 of Turn 5
Notes: Meantioned: J'darin, E'naer, U'kaiah

Teseada

"So...when you Impressed Onnyth, was there anything in particuliar that
scared you?"

Galwen was sitting on Teseada's couch when he asked that. Well, not exactly sitting, more like laying on the couch with his feet on the wall and his head dangling off, watching her upside down. He had sneaked sweets from the kitchen and had brought them to her weyr when it looked like her light was still on. Though he may have promised J'darin that he would go to his Candidate classes, that didn't mean he would always sleep in the barracks.

Since the eggs had clutched T'bel wouldn't let him sleep with his green
anymore, saying his place was now with the rest of the Candidates. More times than not he found himself nodding off in a quiet corner in the kitchens, never making it back to his bed. Which is how he
found himself here, sitting upside down.

"I think I was more worried that I'd age out of candidacy and scared about
what would happen next. I even thought about going to the Technicians Hall
to see if I could walk the tables there," admitted Teseada, as she reached
for a particulalry tasty looking pastry.

"How many times had you Stood?" He couldn't say that he had payed much
attention to her until she had Impressed Onnyth, girls not being in the
forefront of his thoughts.

"Every clutch since I was old enough," she replied, thinking back. "At least six, maybe seven times?"

The boy shook his head. "Standing just this once is bad enough. Faranth
knows what I'll do if I've got turns of being bullied by up-themselves
Holder types and sitting through all those lectures. All for a dragon, eh?" He twisted and sat up, seeing Teseada take the pastry. They looked really nice, and he hadn't eaten much.

Today had been a particully hard day. It had started with one of the
drudges dropping one of the larger kettles on the floor, waking Galwen with a start--and a headache--from where he had fallen asleep slumped over a table in the kitchen. Candidate class had promptly put the boy back asleep, and had earned him a lecture from the brownrider who was teaching.

And in front of all the bullies.

The day had only grown worse when he found out that Nadden was on the same
kitchen duty as him. True, after a personal talk with J'darin himself,
the bully didn't dare try to physically hurt him, but it didn't stop him
from saying things. Galwen hadn't realised how much imagination the Holder lout had, from all the colourful words he had used under his breath to discribe Galwen and his closest friends.

And what J'darin had said to_him_about getting 'experience' from blue
riders! He cringed inside just thinking about the Weyrlingmaster's words.
And he was suppost to talk to E'naer about it. That was the worst part of
all. That, more than anything, was what had him awake so late in the night.

Picking at the iced sugar flower on his cake, he confesed it to Teseada. "The other day J'darin had a talk with me, about missing so many classes and getting picked on by the Houlder louts and all. But the worst thing he was on about was that he thinks I need to get some 'expereince' -- as he called it-- with some blueriders. And he wants me to talk to E'naer about it. Shards, how embarrasing!"

"I remember having a similar chat with the Weyrlingmaster when I was a
candidate," Teseada admitted. "The rest of the candidates seemed to hate me, and they thought I was the 'fat girl' and the boys wouldn't go near me. Then when Onnyth found me they were all over, and the one man I thought I could trust to help me, well it turned out to be a bet that he could get me into his bed." She took a breath before continuing, "I wish I'd listened to E'naer, I think he might have helped me find a nice blue or brownrider and that would have saved a lot of heart ache."

"Someone made a bet to get you in bed?! Men are arses, aren't they?
Barring me, of course." His eyes opened wide in surprise. That was beyond cruel.

"You'll show that lot though when you impress and they age out."

He hadn't thought of that. Berren was 19 turns, he couldn't remember
Nadden's age; they were the worst of the bullies. A slow smile spread
across his face as he thought about it. Turning back to the girl, he said, "good point. But going back to the whole 'finding someone' thing, well the thing is...I've got a terrible crush on E'naer. And now I have to ask him to find me someone to do_that_with?" His face turned red just thinking about it. "Why couldn't J'darin have found someone?"

"Do you want me to ask someone for you?" she asked gently. F'neb who had
been in the weyrling class above her was about her age, and known for being gentle, unlike some. Galwen clearly needed someone who would take things slowly and help him find out what he liked and wanted.

He looked up from his cake when she said that. "You would do that for me?
That's so kind!" His look turned curious. "Anyone in mind?"

"I could introduce you to someone, and then it would be over to you. F'neb is a sweetie, and I'm sure he'd appreciate a new friend if nothing else."

"Ah, F'neb's cute, he's your friend?" He wrinkled his nose, thinking of the young blue rider. "Is it bad, that first time? I think I've just held off and held off until it's become this big monster in my mind, you know? I mean, most of the Hold girls are seeing more action in their first weeks here than I've seen in my whole life!"

Teseada supressed a laugh. "Most of it is all talk, you know that right? But if you find someone who's nice and who you let care about you it could be good."

"That talk, is it from the boys? They certainly talk themselves up just
fine." Another reason he was so shy about it, as there was so much bragging that went on in the barracks at night.

"Trust me, they all play some sort of strange bragging game to try and get
themselves reputations as wannabe bronzeriders," she grinned. "It can be
fun seeing them come back to Pern with a bump when the eggs hatch and they get left behind, or a green dragon works her way to them."

Galwen grinned, thinking of Nadden with a green dragon. "Wonder how they
handle not being on 'top' in the Flight?" That'd serve Nadden, and Berren, right for all the hurts they threw the gay Weyrbrats' way.

"I heard some stories..." She let her voice trail off, Galwen didn't need to hear of the screaming matches that had happened, or punches thrown when
people couldn't handle flights. It seemed to be one thing to appear at ease with what riding a green dragon meant, but another to face the actuality of it.

He grinned when she trailed off. "Oh, I've heard some crazy stories too.
Remember my da rides a blue, and his weyrmate's always coming back with
stories and gossip. Of course, being T'bel, everything gets exagerated and messed up, so I'm never really sure what to believe coming out of his
mouth."

"Probably only half of it is true. You know how people gossip."

"Yeah, people do." Gossip was always thick in the air in the kitchens.
Like that one with U'kaiah and that poor girl. He felt like he would scream if he had to listen to yet another telling and re-tweaking of that tale. And the boys in the barracks. It was hard to keep up with their stories of which girl was the easiest and who was just playing hard-to-get, who was going to get bronze/how big was this bronze going to be/what would happen when so-and-so was Weyrleader, and so on. It wasn't just the Hold boys doing the bragging either, or the straight ones. Another reason to keep as low a profile as possible.

"So now you know why I can't sleep," he said, "what's your excuse?"

"Plain and boring hidework. I'm sure it breeds, because there was more of it this evening than there was this morning."

Galwen laughed. "Yes, the joys of riding a queen, eh?" He tossed her
another cake, glad he had wandered into that bathing cave the other night.
This was turning into a good friendship.

"But I did need a break, so thanks for bringing me these treats."

Last updated on the November 7th 2010

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Insomnia