Don't Be Late

Writers: Chelle, Len
Date Posted: 1st April 2011

Characters: P'nal, T'bel
Description: T'bel gets his annual evaluation.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 1 of Turn 6

P'nal sat in his office. The place finally had the brownrider's stamp
on it and he was comfortable as he waited for his riders to start
coming. They had appointments set up.

T'bel yawned as he stepped up to the wingsecond's door, knocking
politely. He could have done with one less glass of wine last night,
at G'heb's party. A stabbing pain was wrapping its way around his
forehead. He hoped this would be short and not too painful.

"Come in," he said before drinking the last bit of water he had in his
glass. "Have a seat."

"Hello P'nal." T'bel flopped down in the seat indicated. "So..give me the
bad news..."

"Why would there be bad news?" he asked, as he organized his notes.

The younger rider gave P'nal a mock grimace and just waited for him to speak.

"It's time for your annual review, as you might have guessed. Before
we start, is there anything you wanted to discuss or bring up?"

"No, you just go on and get this over with." He hated the annual
review. If he was still alive and sound and the riders around him were
the same, that was review enough, in his book.

"Well I'd like to say that your performance during threadfall is
valuable to the wing. You keep a level head and so does your dragon. I
can't begin to say how important that is." P'nal let him soak in the
praise before he went into the problems.

T'bel didn't take the bait; he'd been here too many times before. He
rolled his eyes at the brownrider and motioned for him to continue.
"Come on with the 'but.' I know it's coming."

"However, your habit of not being on time or even present at all is an
issue. This is your first warning." He was not a babysitter. T'bel was
a grown man and would be held responsible for his actions.

The greenrider sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Why was he not
surprised? It was always like this: you did well in the actual Fall,
but damn you for not being at each and every meeting. He'd been
fighting Thread for eight turns now, couldn't he be allowed to skip
one boring meeting every once in awhile? He knew how to bloody fight
Thread, why was that never important enough? He waggled his foot and
gave
P'nal a sardonic smile.

The wing had an attendance policy. They were allowed to request off
every so often, if it was approved beforehand. Otherwise, attendance
was mandatory unless they had a healer's excuse. T'bel knew that.
P'nal couldn't hold him to a different standard when his wingmates
could manage it. "Now, with that out of the way, we're going to figure
out together what I can do to help you be better."

"Great, I'm always up for being fixed."

"So then what would you say is your greatest issue?" P'nal asked,
wanting feedback.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?" He had been to too many reviews
before to walk into this trap. Tell one of these guys what you thought
you were weak in and they would use it against you.

P'nal was honestly trying to make the wing better. He was tired of the
injuries and being compared with Cyan Wing. "Because I want this to be
a process that includes you and I. If it's just me telling you, it's
not going to work."

T'bel raised an eyebrow. Despite liking P'nal as a person, he was now
someone in a position of authority. No, he wasn't going to walk into
any silly traps, thank you very much. He looked at P'nal and just gave
him a half smile.

"T'bel, if you don't answer me, it's the same as saying you don't give
a shell about the wing or yourself as a rider." It was the last time
he was going to ask. And then he would send the matter over to G'nir.

Great, give the man a bit of power and he was going to be as pushy and
nasty as any bronzerider. "And here I thought it was only us
greenriders who were good at passive-aggressive." He leaned forward
and looked P'nal in the eye. "Tell you what, Wingsecond, you tell me
what you think the issues are and I'll tell you if they need fixing or
not. Cos as
it is, I honestly don't see any problems with the wing, my performance
in it, or in G'nir as a leader."

"So you don't see your attendance habits as a problem when they
violate wing policy?" he asked easily, as if T'bel hadn't just done
what he'd done.

"No, I don't."

"And why not?" He was dying for an explanation into T'bel's convoluted
non-logic.

"Well...because no one around me is getting hurt and I always know my
formation and I always know my sweep ride and when it changes. And
it's not like I miss a lot, it's just now and again. And besides, I
thought you already went over this: don't skip. I got it, so why are
we still dwelling on it?" The greenrider sighed unhappily, thinking,
**well, scratch him off my friends list.**

"Because it's a small symptom of a greater problem. You don't think
you need to follow wing policy, the same as everyone else. It means
you see yourself as separate from the rest of the wing. Effective
threadfighting isn't just about duty, it's about being a team and
working as well as
you can together. Showing up is not only to hold yourself accountable,
it's also to show your wingmates that they can trust you; that you
think the Wing, and them, is important. If your wingmates can't count
on you and trust that you want the wing to be the best it can, then
you're
letting them down."

"Okay, I said I got it...don't be late. Anything else?"

"Depending on how that bit improves, I'd like to conditionally
approach you about possibly serving as help for the weyrlings coming
in. Soon, we'll be getting a new bunch, which I'm sure you are aware
of. I need experienced riders to show them the ropes, so to speak. I
want
strong wingriders to set a good example." And that showed T'bel how
much P'nal really thought of his value to the wing.

The smaller man blinked, a bit taken aback by the request. He hadn't
honestly ever saw himself as much value to the wing, other than as a
typical greenrider. He thought about the senior weyrlings
with nice kids like O'ryn and M'shan and grinned a bit. Helping them
out would be a lot of fun. "Really, sir? Thanks...thanks for even
considering me." That would be a valid reason not to mess up,
he thought.

"So you know what you need to do, T'bel. Unless you have anything
else, I think we're finished here." P'nal thought that would be a good
ending for the conversation.

"Okay, see you at tomorrow's meeting," T'bel mock groaned and stood up to leave.

Last updated on the April 27th 2011

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Don't Be Late