A Surprising Applicant

Writers: Emma, Estelle, Heather
Date Posted: 19th April 2019

Characters: L'keri, Saibra, Teseada
Description: L'keri has to carry out his dare
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 9, day 22 of Turn 9
Notes: Mentioned: R'axe

L'keri

Saibra

Teseada

L'keri wandered into the kitchens at mid-morning, in the hope of
charming one of the staff out of a hearty fry-up even though it was
closer to lunch than breakfast-time. Although he wasn't feeling his best
- he was still lethargic and his head ached after a very late night and
a lot to drink - he couldn't help the satisfied grin that spread over
his face every time he remembered the night that had followed.
Specifically, the greenrider who'd come back to his weyr with him to
help him write his application. He'd had a lot of fun, demonstrating his
skills...

Something about that bothered him, though, and as he looked around for a
likely cook, he frowned. Application?

**Rhalith? What happened, last night?**

}:I don't know,:{ the brown replied from where he was sunning himself on
his ledge. }:But Chioneth asked me to tell you that her rider will see
you in fifteen minutes, for the interview.:{

Then L'keri remembered, and immediately he was all too wide awake, and
not in the least bit hungry.

**Oh, shards. Shards! What have I done?** He turned and bolted out of
the kitchen, heading for his weyr. He was going to kill R'axe. How had
he managed to get so drunk that he'd thought applying to be a Wingthird
would be anything other than a disaster? What did they even ask you at
such an interview? He'd never bothered to find out. Did they ask about
obscure formations? What you'd do if the wind changed to blow cross-wing
and you were short of greenriders? And the Queen's Wing! What did he
know about flying in the Queen's Wing?

The worst part was, he couldn't back out now. Not only would he look
like a coward and a bad sport in front of his whole Wing, he would also
annoy the Weyrwoman. Not a good idea.

Fifteen minutes later, after a very quick wash, shave and change into
his smartest shirt, and glancing hastily over some old notes from his
weyrling days while combing his hair, he was outside Saibra's office.

**Well...here goes,** he thought, and knocked.

Saibra's eyebrows raised at the knock, she had a cup of klah to her
lips, and then she smiled a little as she set her cup down on the table.
"Well, Tes, here we go." The Senior Weyrwoman had been surprised to see
an application from L'keri come across her desk in the wee hours of the
morning. She had been even more interested to see some of the
"qualifications" that had been listed on his application.

**This should be interesting,** she thought as she called, "Come in."

"Indeed," said Teseada as she scanned the hides one more time. "I wonder
what brought him to this."

L'keri had decided that the best way to get through this without
humiliating himself and getting into trouble was to act confident, and
so he entered the office with the best smile on his face that he could
muster, given his hangover. "Weyrwoman. Goldrider," he said, nodding to
Teseada. "Thank you for seeing me." He saw his application on the desk,
and wondered nervously what was in it.

"Yes, welcome L'keri, we were," Saibra glanced at Teseada and then back
at the brownrider, "both a little surprised to see your application come
in this morning."

"We were," confirmed Teseada. "May I ask what inspired you to apply?"

"I..." Clearly he couldn't say that he was doing this for a dare, but
L'keri was hesitant to lie outright to a goldrider. He was sure they'd
be able to tell, somehow. "I suppose you could say...it was a challenge.
It's good to challenge yourself, don't you think?"

The Weyrwoman's lips twisted a bit with a contained smile. "You are
correct. It is good to challenge oneself. Tell me, L'keri, what do you
think you would bring to this position?"

The brownrider froze. Memories of the previous evening were starting to
return to him, and try as he might, the only answer that his brain
provided him with was the comment he'd made about being good at taking
orders from women. It had seemed very witty at the time, but he was
fairly sure it would be neither helpful nor appropriate at the present
moment.

"I know I wouldn't be the obvious choice," he began, playing for time.
"But I'm very...enthusiastic. Friendly. Easy to talk to. And I get on
really well with, uh, greenriders. So does my Rhalith. With their
dragons, I mean. I think I'd bring an...an energy to the role that a
more traditional candidate wouldn't."

"Ah yes, I believe you mentioned energy in your qualifications," Saibra
picked the application up from the table and scanned it for a moment.
"Ah, yes, here it is. You wrote 'endurance to go all night.' I'm sure
you were talking about doing hidework until the wee hours or serving
night watch duties, weren't you?" She tilted her head a bit, a bit of a
gleam now in her cobalt eyes.

"Um..." L'keri managed to carry on smiling politely, but his eyes had
the agonised look of a prey animal in the path of a hungry dragon. Just
how drunk had he been last night? And - more importantly - what else was
on that application? "Yes, ma'am. Night watch duties. I've had a lot of
experience with those."

"And discipline," asked Teseada. "Have you had experience of that?"

L'keri managed to suppress his instinctive lewd response to that one.
"Yes, goldrider. I haven't always made the best decisions in the past,
and my former Wingleader did have occasion to discipline me," he said
solemnly. "But I've made a new start since I got to Dragonsfall, and put
that kind of behaviour behind me."

Saibra glanced back down at the application, "Ah, yes, you did mention
also that you have the talent of 'making people say yes.' I was
wondering, how do you handle a situation where a subordinate does not
wish to follow one of your directives?" Her eyes flicked back up to his.

Having never had a subordinate in his life, L'keri answered as best he
could by thinking of the usual circumstances under which he would
persuade someone to 'say yes'. "Well, I'd try to convince them that
doing, um, whatever it was I wanted them to do would be enjoyable and
worthwhile. Or at least," he continued flashing a charming smile, "that
they like me and that I'd be happy if they did it. And if that doesn't
work...I'd listen to them. Maybe they have good reason not to want to do
it."

The Weyrwoman nodded slowly as if she were truly contemplating L'keri's
answer. "And what would you do if one of your wingriders applied for a
position and wrote that the reason people looked up to him for
leadership was because he threw the best parties?"

"I'd tell them that...it was an ingenious way to demonstrate leadership
ability?" He decided that since he'd gone this far, he might as well
brazen it out. "To throw a good party, you have to plan ahead to make
sure the party is well supplied. You have to understand your guests and
how they interact, pay attention to make sure everyone's enjoying
themselves and the shy ones don't feel left out, and settle any disputes
with good humour so they don't turn into fights. You have to be
confident, and in control of the situation. A lot like leading a Wing,
really."

By the end of that speech, he'd almost convinced himself. "So, to answer
your question... I would praise that wingrider for their creativity."

Saibra's lips twitched a little as she maintained her professionally
stern look. "Teseada, do you have any further questions for L'keri?" she
asked, looking to her 'second.

"No, no I'm fine," came the reply as Teseada tried to suppress a grin,
and probably wasn't doing a very good job of it.

"Then I believe that you are free to go, L'keri." Saibra said, and then
added, "But you might want to be more careful in the future about who
you take as drinking buddies."

"Yes, Weyrwoman." L'keri looked somewhat abashed, but also relieved to
have made it through the interview in one piece. Deciding to keep up the
pretence to the last, he stood and bowed to both goldriders. "Thank you
for your time, and for considering my application." Then, he turned
smartly and made a hasty exit.

Last updated on the April 26th 2019

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A Surprising Applicant