To Stand or Not to Stand

Writers: Mirren, Paula
Date Posted: 29th January 2016

Characters: Sh'dori, Doria
Description: Father and daughter catch up.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 4, day 3 of Turn 8

"Ma still think I should stand." Doria toyed with her fork, her eyes down on her food. "I said I'd try again this time." She didn't say it, but the word 'but' hung in the air.

"Maybe Ged's Impression gave her ideas?" Sh'dori suggested. "You don't have to, you know. Besides, you're young, you can always wait until you're older. Malyna was almost 18 when she Impressed."

"Maybe. I just don't know why being an apprentice isn't enough." It made her happy. She did want to please her mother though.

"Cause mothers want best for their children?" franky, Sh'dori wasn't close enough with her mother to know for sure.

Doria shrugged. "I thought she liked that I was weaving." She could have been cleaning latrines or doing laundry all day. Not that there was anything wrong with either of those things.

"Who knows. Perhaps you should just ask her?" Sh'dori replied.

She gave him a wide-eyed look of consternation. "She'll just say it's up to me." But in a way that clearly indicated that she'd be expected to comply.

"So, what's she griping then?" Sh'dori wondered. If he could completely understand who female mind worked...he probably would have twenty more children.

"I'm sure she just wants what's best." Maybe she had visions of 'her daughter the Weyrwoman', but that wasn't going to happen. Golds liked strong, bold women, not ones with barely the nerve to talk to anyone.

Sh'dori had no comment to that. Some people just were never happy. "So, besides mommy-woes, what else is going on in your life?" he asked instead.

Doria shrugged. "Just work. I've been trying to make some new patterns, but they end up…not quite what I like."

"So keep trying. You're, what; fourteen. You're still learning the stuff," Sh'dori had to admit that he knew next to nothing about weavercraft. "You can ask Endoriel for help," he suggested.

"I know." Doria poked her fork into a tuber. "I just have an idea in my head and I'm trying to get it to come out. I'll keep trying."

"That's the spirit," Sh'dori said encouragingly.

"If it works, maybe I'll make you a shirt," she said, suddenly shy. He might hate the fabric she made.

"That would be lovely," he said and smiled. He still had the blanket Endoriel had made when she was apprentice. It had slightly askew edges and it was on a back of his lounging chair.

"You won't have to wear it," she assured him. "I don't always wear what I make." Some of it was just… bad.

"Your skills grown when you come older. You should see my first furnitures, they were only fit for firewood," Sh'dori said with merry twinkle in his eyes. "My first chair was hazard for the health."

She giggled. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad "

"Trust me, it was. Sitting on it would had broken something: your back, leg or at least the chair," Sh'dori grinned.

"Lucky you got better," she remarked. "And aren't a jokester." He could have told someone it was safe to sit on and laugh when they fell on their behinds.

"It took some practising. And your grandmother would have tanned my hide if I got out of the line," Sh'dori replied.

"Sh'dori," she said carefully. "Who am I most like?" The rest of her family seemed to be outgoing. She was anything but.

"Hhh, your uncle A'dori, I would say. He's very smart but put him to a large, social gathering and he probably ends leaning against the wall and observing people. He's not very good with people, especially with strangers."

Doria nodded. "That does sound like me. People are… I just don't know what to say to them. Other people always seem to know, but me…" She sighed.

"Your uncle has the same problem. Unless he's talking about his craft. Then you can't make him shut up," Sh'dori rolled his eyes with fond exasperation. He was actually very close with his brother.

"I don't have that problem." She wasn't chatty under any circumstances. "Maybe it'll change when I get older." She couldn't imagine it though.

"Maybe. People do change when they grow older," Sh'dori said.

"We'll see I suppose." She finally put a forkful of food into her mouth.

"Don't worry about it too much," Sh'dori said.

"Who me, worry?" She obviously was.

Sh'dori chuckled and patted her hand.

She smirked at him but didn't reply.

Last updated on the January 31st 2016

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To Stand or Not to Stand