The Weight of Expectations

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 19th July 2016

Characters: L'pin, R'nar, A'vel
Description: A writing assignment for Weyrlings.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 5, day 11 of Turn 8

A'vel had been interested in the entire lecture on Weyr, Hall, and
Hold politics that had been put together by the Weyrlingmaster's
Third. This was the kind of topic that had fascinated him in the Hall,
a part of Harper duties that wasn't thought about as frequently as the
singing and music-playing, or the teaching, responsibilities. But it
was one that was nevertheless vital and important. Harpers were
arbiters and peacemakers, and to be so they needed to know all kinds
of things about the world and people of Pern.

As L'pin was describing the assignment, it sounded exciting. Discuss
the hold/hallbred experience? That sounded eminently doable. Compare
and contrast with the weyrbred experience? But that required him to
know more about it, and all he knew were Harper tales that were
probably true since they were part of the duty songs, and the
scurrilous rumors spread by men like his father. So how was he
supposed -

Then he realized that it wasn't just going to be on his own
experiences - he heard the dreaded words, "group project". Immediately
A'vel wondered which of the weyrbred folk he would feel okay
partnering with. It had been a tiring month of weyrlinghood and he
felt as though he hadn't had time to really make friends yet.

"I have taken the liberty of assigning you to partners already, to
ensure a balanced group," L'pin was saying. "The roll of names will be
at the front of the classroom. Find your partner's name and then get
together with them."

A'vel had been sitting in the front row anyway, so he was one of the
first in line to read the scroll. He saw his partner's name and
swallowed nervously. **R'nar.** One of the bronzeriders. Oh. Oh that
could be awkward, he thought.

He stepped away from it and looked around till he caught the bronze
weyrling's eye and waved at him hesitantly.

}:Iorath, my rider is paired with yours,:{ Tsogath said to the bronze.

R'nar didn't mind being paired with a holdbred person, necessarily,
but he remembered hearing some about A'vel and the shock it had been
to his family to have him ride a green dragon, and for that reason
alone he partially dreaded the assignment.

He returned A'vel's wave with a nod, his arms crossed over his chest,
dark brown eyes revealing nothing. Being the son of Weyrleaders R'nar
knew the importance that greens and their riders brought to the Weyr,
but still, being paired with one?

}:I guess it's no different than when we're old enough to ride
sweeps.:{ Iorath pointed out.

**Sweeps don't require much conversation, though.** R'nar thought.

He'd been too distracted by how his own Impression went to get to know
a lot about the other weyrlings at first. R'nar was weyrbred and
related to the Weyrwoman. That meant he was experienced and smart and
probably knew the answers to everything, the green weyrling guessed.
That could be really useful, or really intimidating. It depended on
how the interaction went.

A'vel crossed over the room to stand by the other weyrling. "Hello
R'nar. I saw our names together on the roll," he said unnecessarily.

R'nar looked around as other pairs began filing out to find some place
quieter to work with their assigned partner. "Yeah, I guess we'd
better get started then." He wasn't really the type that enjoyed
talking very much so this was the kind of assignment that made him

cringe.

He didn't sound enthused. Was it that he didn't like A'vel, or
assignments? The green weyrling hoped it was the latter. "I don't mind
doing all the writing part if you give me the information. I like this
kind of thing," he said.

The bronze Weyrling wasn't opposed to writing, but if A'vel was
offering he didn't mind. "Okay. I guess we just need to decide what
topics we want to talk about."

"There's the treatment of women as the most obvious difference, though
I think half the class will talk about the Craftban," A'vel said with
a hint of disgust in his tone. "The nature of family is related but
has room to talk about more than just Crafting."

"Yeah, we can talk about the differences in families, expectations,
and etiquette to start." R'nar wondered if there was a difference in
food between the Weyr and Holds? It was something he could ask A'vel.

"That sounds like a good topic, maybe we'll get points for doing
something different." A'vel liked the idea of points. It was better
than doing the same old.

"So what was your family like? Your folks are riders?"

"Yeah, my dad is the Weyrleader at Far Island, and my mom is the
Weyrwoman here, of course. They didn't stay together so I sort of have
two families kinda because they both weyrmated and had kids with other
people." He didn't really go into detail about how his dad didn't care
about anything other than rank and status and making him proud.

"Do you like having two families? And more siblings? That sounds
really interesting," A'vel said, taking notes about it.

**My father would have thought that unnatural,** he thought.

"I mean, I love my brothers and sisters," and he did he guessed, even
if he didn't want to be around _all_ of them _all_ the time. "It would
be nice if I had a mother and father that could tolerate each other,
but it's been this way for a long time so... What about you? What's
your family like?"

"Boring?" A'vel joked. "One mother, one father, they're married. No
siblings, which is unusual for a Hall. I was expected to go into the
family craft the same as my father."

Only child? R'nar couldn't imagine not having to share everything.
"Were they mad then when you Impressed?"

A'vel found it in himself to snort. "My father verbally attacked the
Weyrleaders over it and demanded they make me give up Tsogath. I don't
understand how a Harper doesn't understand you can't do that. They saw
I Impressed green and saw all their dreams go up in smoke, I guess."

"If they were so hung up on you carrying on at the Hall, why did they
let you become a Candidate in the first place?" R'nar wondered.

"Mother insisted. A bronzeriding son would do them honor, she said,
and dazzled my Da." A'vel laughed bitterly, his good humor overriden
by his habit of making himself the tail of the joke.

R'nar studied A'vel with his dark brown, nearly black eyes, "But...
you knew you wouldn't impress a bronze, didn't you?"

That was an uncomfortable line of thinking, and he looked away. "I
wanted to like girls. I wanted to Impress a brown. But wanting doesn't
matter much. And I don't regret Tsogath at all."

Well, clearly there must be _some_ part of A'vel that wanted men, but
R'nar wisely kept his mouth shut on that matter. After all, what did
he know? "I can't imagine anyone regretting a dragon." He settled for
saying, because that seemed safe, and true.

"No, I can't either. If my parents could _see _ it," he said softly.
Then he shook his head. "Do weyrfolk ever reject their children for
Impressing, or not?"

"Not that I've ever heard. Growing up in a Weyr you always know
there's a possibility. I would have had the opposite problem. If I'd
never Impressed I would never have heard the end of it from my father
since he's a Weyrleader."

"Yours is a Weyrleader, mine's a Master Harper, and it sounds like
they both wanted us to be clones of themselves, living up to their
dreams."

"Yeah, it's one of the reasons I moved here, to get away from that."

"There's a commonality. Whether you have two parents or more than two,
no matter what shape your family is in, they always weigh you down
with expectations." But A'vel smiled as he said it and took his notes.

R'nar looked at A'vel a little differently when he said that, maybe they
had more in common than he had first thought. Either way, A'vel wasn't
what the bronze Weyrling had expected him to be.

Last updated on the July 22nd 2016

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The Weight of Expectations