Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

The World outside the Grey Tower is a vast place.
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Locke
"The Path of Daggers"
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PC: Terric of the Salt Flat Sept of the Nakai Aiel
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Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Locke » July 28th, 2020, 10:36 am

Tempers flared and raised voices echoed around the empty courtyard. It was too early even for the Learning Ranks to be about their chores but the two were already arguing.

The diminutive Saldaean Aes Sedai paced, stepping around a row of staged rucksacks, as she argued, “I’d think that you of all people would understand more than most, Terric, when Amon Ansolm writes: The Borderlander culture of honor and duty leads to a lack of criminality compared to the more southern lands.” As she spoke, she gestured with said book in what Terric assumed was the Saldaean noblewoman's fan language. To him, it mostly looked like she just wanted to hit him with it.

Standing in the middle of the courtyard, arms crossed, Terric responded through gritted teeth, “Again, I’ll grant his premise, but he doesn’t go nearly far enough to explain why that’s the case. This isn’t scholarship, just cultural chauvinism. Maybe I’d have agreed when I was a younger man, but the existence of an honor system being the main limit on crime is asinine. Plenty of societies have honor codes. In the Threefold Land, we have ji’e’toh most Wetland codes aren’t as formalized, but they do have them. Another thing I wouldn’t have even realized when I was younger. The real question Ansolm should be asking is how the societies are organized. In our homelands, not only is crime a potential threat to our survival but the conditions that lead to it—”

The Brown sister almost cut in but paused at his raised hand. “Looks like the student’s are showing up,” Terric said, scooping up his clipboard. He turned, eager to finally put names to faces. It had been too long since he’d taught a class and he had something in store for the five student’s who’d signed up for his special training session.
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Lou
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Re: Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Lou » August 8th, 2020, 1:09 pm

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When Dianlinn had been a Drin, she had heard the other Drins going on about the time they could not wait to become a Ji in the Tower. Other than seeing it as an advancement, she had heard them going on about how much of an easier time they would have there, how the training would be easier, they would have more free time and they would be treated as adults. Dianlinn had not looked forward to such things, for those things, but to simply show she had been doing her job right, and that her honour was in tact. But now she was a Ji, she did not see this as any easier, in fact to her mind it was more work for her. She trained harder, as was expected, she run classes, helped teach new Drin to the Tower and those who simply came to learn from them before going their own ways.

She had been told to collect her equipment, and to meet an Aes Sedai and a Gaidin in the square at a certain time. She was not sure why, but she made sure to have everything she would need, everything she had been told to bring, and arrived in time to see an Aes Sedai and a Gaidin seeming to be at across words. She paused, feeling a cold shiver sliding down her spine as she looked at the Gaidin.

He was an Aiel.

She had done well to avoid any AIel in the Tower so far, the men anyway, there were not many of them. And she had not wanted to be close to them. They made her think of the Shaido, of the way they had taken her, used her, and then forbidden her from wearing the White. She found her jaw was clenched and her hands were too, one around the spear she carried, and the other in a closed fist, so her nails dug into the meat of her palm.

After standing still a little while longer, she made her way forward, before standing to attention. She did not look at either the Gaidin or the Aes Sedai, until she was aware of them looking at her. "Ji'Val Dianlinn, formerly of the Jagged Spire Sept of the Taardad Aiel."
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Locke
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Re: Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Locke » August 8th, 2020, 7:44 pm

The first student to arrive was a tall young woman. Terric thought she might be a fellow Aiel; way she introduced herself quickly confirmed that suspicion.


“I see you, Dianlinn,” Terric said, checking her name off his list, “I am Terric Gaidin of the Salt Flat Sept of the Nakai Aiel, welcome to ‘special wilderness combat and survival training’.” He paused, noting her apparent discomfort. “Don’t mind her,” he said nodding over his shoulder, “That’s Tallia Syn Aes Sedai, she’s just mad because she cannot read.”

The Brown sister spluttered in indignation.

Turning to face her, a twinkle in his eye seemingly at odds with his blunt words, Terric said, “You think Amon Ansolm’s treatise is in any way through, what else am I to think?”

Tallia Syn let out a laugh, “You should know better than to make jokes about people in stabbing range, Aiel.”

Returning his attention to Dianlinn, Terric said, “I’ll hazard a guess that you were Far Daries Mai before taking the Grey. It’s the way you’re looking at me like you’re waiting for a reason to stab me. This may be a little personal, but I want to give you a piece of advice, from one Algai'd'siswai to another. The kind of thing I wish somebody had told me back when I wore the Grey.” The mirthful twinkle had vanished from his eyes. “If you want to continue to live ji’e’toh in these Wetlands, you will have to figure out what that means for you. You’ll have to learn what it means to be Aiel Dianlinn’s way.” He pointed the clipboard at her chest, “Not the Tardad way, not the Maiden’s way. Not even the Wise One’s way. I’ve tried to split the difference, myself. I have a toh to the Tower I will never meet, but must always strive to. And no matter how much of an Aethan Dor at heart, the Gaidin are my society.” He continued with a slight shrug, “But that was my way. I can’t tell you how to do it your way, just accept you won’t be able to square every contradiction."
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Lou
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Re: Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Lou » August 27th, 2020, 5:00 pm

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Dianlinn watched as the Aiel man, from the Nakai Aiel greeted her as was proper, but that did not help the small pit in her middle of her heart. She had not been near an Aiel man since she had been rescue by an Aes Sedai. And she simply wished he was not a Gaidin, and her superior. He was not a Shaido, at least there was that, but still, seeing his tan, his red hair and height, it was killing her not to reach for her spear and dance with him right there and now. "I see you. May you always find water and shade." Though her tone spoke of no such thing.

She nodded her head to the Aes Sedai in respect, though her eyes were always on him, always marking where he was in her proximity. She was not a foppish Wetlander to think all men desired her, but the memory of those calloused, sun darkened hands on her skin was still too fresh, always too fresh.

She watched as he joked with the Brown Aes Sedai, though it was no jest she understood before his blue eyed focus was back on her. He spoke of her being a Maiden, of the look of her wanting to stab him. He had the right of it, but she said nothing. Then he spoke of ji’e’toh, of how it would change here in the Wetlands, and she wanted to sneer at him. She had found no such thing, she had lived by her code, the same one as before, and it had stopped her claiming many injustices against her. "I serve the Aes Sedai, and I will be their shield in the battles to come." She said simply, "I am their spear in the dance, as the Wise Ones bid. I am nothing more." After all it was what she had been told to do, go and serve, and that was what she had been doing. Her own personal feelings did not enter into it. She was just a spear for them, and she would serve.
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Locke
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Re: Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Locke » August 29th, 2020, 11:29 am

“Suit yourself, siswai’tar,” he said, speaking the somewhat cobbled title like a long used honorific. He crossed the courtyard and returned to waiting for more students to trickle in.

“I won’t presume to lecture you about ji’e’toh, but remember, spearheads chip and shafts crack,” he said and suppressed a wince. His own power wrought spearheads were a slight blow against his metaphor, but she didn’t need to know that.

If Terric knew anything about Maidens, and he believed he did, he thought he could expect some sort of biting retort. Before she could say anything, Terric caught a flicker of gray in his peripheral.

“I see you, Mandivwin Kholar. I see you too, Kalista Marn. It appears we are missing two more— one more Ji. You will have to try harder if you wish to sneak past me, Win Janlin,” he said as a tardy Ji peeked into the room.

The pound of running boots announced the final student. A disheveled, panting young man skidded around the corner. “I’m sorry for my lateness, Gaidin. No excuse,” he said between pants

“You have no toh, Rik Codvin, but you do appear to have been neglecting your endurance training.” Turning to address the entire group, after welcoming them all to the class and introducing Tallia Syn he posed the students a question, “What does a broom and a spear have in common?”

“Oh I know! They’re both wood,” Mandivwin Kholar offered bouncing on his toes.


“Distressingly literal,” Terric said wryly, “Anybody else want to give it a shot? What about you, Dianlinn?”
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Lou
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Location: Essex Coast, UK

Re: Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Lou » September 28th, 2020, 3:37 pm

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Glaring at the Gaidin, Dianlinn opened her mouth to tell him exactly what he could do with his opinion, and stating that she may well crack. She had not yet, and while she tried not to feel pride in that, she had come here and survived more than he could know. Unless he read her file. And then he would know and maybe saw her as a brittle thing. She would point out about how many shafts bowed in time, and could not longer be made straight when he looked away from her and greeted more Ji who were arriving to the courtyard. She knew them, and found it was going to be an even more miserable lesson as she disliked two of them, one she had fought more than once, and found she had needed to teach him some respect. He glared at her, and she looked away as she rolled her eyes. She would mark his position the whole time.

She watched as another late comer arrived, and she took in a deep breath. Lateness annoyed her, as there was no need for it.

When Terric asked his question, and one of the other Ji answered with a very literal answer, Dianlinn almost sighed, but held it in. It was not her place to make the other feel small. But when she was asked, she raised a brow at him, and swallowed her dislike to answer evenly.

"Both are tools to clean away the deadwood, though a broom can also be turned to a weapon if needed." She told him, knowing if that was the answer he wished for, but it was what had come to her in that moment. She watched him to see if he would mock her answer, then looked back over to the waiting Aes Sedai.
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Locke
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Re: Don't get cold feet (Attn: Lou, also open to other mid ranks)

Post by Locke » October 10th, 2022, 4:10 am

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I'm doing my best to get back into the swing of things. Don't feel obligated to respond if you're beyond this character
“Right enough,” Terric said. “Dianlinn has the right of it, mostly. A spear and a broom are both tools. They have their purpose, but can be used for a variety of things beyond that. You’re probably thinking about hunting and fishing. True, but those are obvious uses. That spear can become a splint for a broken leg, a lever to shift a boulder, or even firewood in a survival situation.” He hoped the former Maiden wouldn’t assume his last example was a suggestion.

“That said, I want to remind all of you of the lesson I’ve tried to teach each of you who have studied under me in the past. ‘Your spear is just a tool, you are the weapon.’” A few of the students echoed his words, and the Gaidin gave a subtle nod of pride. “Soon, Tallia Syn Aes Sedai will open a gateway to take us to the mountains. We will spend the next week hiking and practicing survival skills and fighting skills. Specifically you will be learning how to work as a unit and how to achieve combat objectives. And no, Mandivwin Kholar, before you say it, your combat objective is often not as simple as ‘killing the other guy.”
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