Failed recruitment

Writers: Chelle, Jelena
Date Posted: 5th March 2013

Characters: P'nal, Derwill
Description: Derwill tries to get P'nal's help in an experiment, but fails miserably.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 11, day 23 of Turn 6

Derwill usually didn't pay much attention to his birthingday. Usually
it was only because of his family that he even remembered it. Like
every turn they had sent him a few gifts and he had written them with
thanks, but usually that would be it. However, at this moment, he
realized all the more that he could use the specialness of the day to
his advantage for once. As he walked into the Dining Cavern he spied for
a willing - or unwilling - victim.

Some distance away, the brownrider sat eating his warm tubers and sauce,
luxuriating in it. These days, he craved any heat he could get, though P'nal
was used to the climate.

When Derwill spotted the brownrider, whom he knew from one of the very
first days of his arrival, a grin appeared on his face. "P'nal, hello
there!" he greeted the rider jovially. "How are we doing today?"

Looking up to find the smith, a frown crossed P'nal's face. Putting down his
fork, he swallowed his last bite. "Ah so far so good, and you?"

"Ah, it's been a bit of a lonely day, I have to admit," Derwill said,
even managing to pull off a sad expression. "You see it's my

birthingday and my family lives so far away. Also, I keep myself so
busy I don't have much time for making friends around here."

"Ah well I know how that can be. A shame. You should have a sit and have
a drink. I'm sure we can maybe get some sweet rolls for you." P'nal gestured
to a serving drudge.

"Well, I got a really good celebratory wine waiting for me at home,
but as there's no one to drink it with.." Derwill trailed off,
feigning thankfulness for the sweetrolls, but without letting go of
his sad, lonely expression.

P'nal couldn't really say he knew the man all that well but it was his
birthingday
and he looked a bit pitiful. Besides, what harm could a little wine
do? "Well, let
me finish up here and maybe we can work on that wine."

"Oh, now that's a good idea," Derwill smiled, sitting back happily now
as he waited for the rider to finish up his meal. When he had, he led
P'nal through various corridors into his quarters and on just entering
the room the rider could easily see this was no ordinary living space.
Everywhere you could see the room was packed with devices, some
whizzing and whirring, others silent and statuary. Some were pretty
straight-forward, like a flamethrower with different kinds of nozzles
beside it, others were simply bizarre, with no clue whatsoever to
their function. As the old man stepped inside to let P'nal in, he
looked at him, eager to see his reaction.

To be honest, the tanner had never seen such a thing as this. It was like
there was no function or form, everything was just chaos altogether. Still,
he thought Derwill was probably proud of all of it so he tried to keep his
reaction polite. "Ahh..wow...that's impressive."

"Thank you," Derwill beamed. "Mind you, a lot of it is work in
progress, but I'm quite happy with my collection." He opened a cabinet
from which various items came rolling out as he retrieved the wineskin

he had mentioned earlier. At least he hadn't lied about that! After he
handed P'nal the skin he started repacking the cabinet.

P'nal looked around for a glass and found one that was clean, mercifully.
Pouring from the skin, he picked it up and took a taste, licking his lips. "Ah
well then, this is some quality."

"It is indeed!" Derwill said with a smile. "Oh, take a seat over
there. Just put aside the mindvoicator," he pointed at a big, comfy
chair that had some kind of helmet perched on it. All sorts of odd
metal bits were sticking out.

Trying not to ask what that was, P'nal simply set it aside, then took his place
in the chair. Something about this was not quite right and he was beginning to
have second thoughts-even if the wine was good.

"That's my latest invention," Derwill nodded at the helmet device.
"Still not sure if it works, need to test it, but if it works it
should prove to be immensely useful to the Weyr!"

"Oh? What's it do?" Thinking about that, the brownrider hoped that it didn't do
anything dangerous. That was all G'nir needed-a mad smith running around.

"It's supposed to pick up on dragon's mindvoices!" Derwill announced
proudly, picking up the device with care.

**Ah well harmless then.** "And how is it going to do that?" he asked,
curiously.

"Well, I've piled conducting material upon conducting material here,
directing it into these two earplugs. If there's anything audible
about a mindvoice, this helmet should pick up on it and make it
audible for the human ear!"

"Hmm I don't think it is audible really. That is, it doesn't go through
your ears. It goes through your brain." It was hard to explain, especially
to someone who had never had a dragon speak to them before.

"But are you sure?" Derwill asked with a twinkle in his eyes. He
didn´t give in so easily and would only admit if proven wrong with
evidence.

"Very sure. Elsewise everyone would be able to hear whenever a dragon
spoke, but only the Hears-Alls can do that." The logic made very good sense.

"But there are sounds the human ear can't pick up on normally, like
dolphin sonar," Derwill replied. "What if a dragon's mindvoice is like
that?"

"No one can hear dolphin sonar though. So then why can Hears Alls hear the
dragons if it's the same?" The brownrider was actually enjoying this back and
forth, but he'd never admit it.

"Who knows there aren't humans who can hear dolphin sonar like a Hears
All can hear dragons?" Derwill asked with a smile. "Not a lot of people

get to spend much time underwater with dolphins."

"They do have underwater breathers, you know. Maybe you should go down
to the hall sometime and check one out." P'nal quickly realized this
conversation
was going to go nowhere so he carefully drank as much of the wine as
he could then
stood up. "You know, though, Derwill, it's been nice chatting but I've
got to get on
now. Morning comes early, you know?"

"Ah yes, it does indeed," Derwill nodded, trying to hide his
disappointment. He had been hoping to convince P'nal of the worth of
his device and recruit him for helping with an experiment using it.
Better luck next time then, right? "I wish you a good night,
dragonrider."

Last updated on the March 23rd 2013

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Failed recruitment