orientation ♔

[sirsolace]

WHO || Solace, Scout [open]
WHAT || Solace meets with his squire
WHERE || Healing Room, 2nd Floor, Knight's HQ
WHEN || May 14, evening.
HOW || Actionspam

[ Solace is a busy man, it seems, and difficult to reach, but he finally leaves word for Scout to meet him at the end of a shift spent in the recovery room upstairs. It's quiet when she enters, a few Knights resting in beds as he moves between them, robes dusting the ground. ]

Comments

[sirsolace]

Not unless you believe them necessary.

[burnsbright]

I don't.

[She passes the end of the towel that's around her shoulders over her face to cover it as she calls on her Jedi discipline, lowering it red-eyed but suddenly steady. Scout clears her throat. Her voice is overly brisk, she might as well be saying "Moving on".]

Another time maybe. Not now. This is another world, far from there, please don't bring it up unless you need to.

[Scout's stance changes, more hip-shot with one knee bent, and she hangs on to an end of the towel with each hand. It's the most teenagery thing she's done so far, though she still sounds focused.]

What will you be needing from me, as my mentor? Are there things I can help you with, sir?

[sirsolace]

We can always use assistants in the healing rooms... Our organization is too short on clerics these days. [ He offers no explanation as to why. ] But most of our relationship consists of my assisting you, in settling in to your duties here. Adjusting, as it were.

[burnsbright]

[As a non-healer that's likely orderly work, she thinks, but truth is that concept doesn't feel unfamiliar. Was she doing that before reaching this world...? Scout can't quite remember.] I'd like to do what I may. What are the hours and requirements?

Me? [That's as surprised as she's gotten today.]

[sirsolace]

You'll do well to work the late night shifts, tending to those who wake, and keeping watch on those recovering. Simple tasks, but we need the extra eyes and hands.

[ He glances at her, as if trying to decide what to make of her incredulity. ]

Do you find something wrong with that arrangement?

[burnsbright]

I can start tonight.

[Scout purses her lips, and uses a towel end to brush at her arm, where drying sweat is starting to itch.]

- You're a division head, sir. Surely you have more important things to do, if hea- clerics are so needed. I'm just a green squire.

[sirsolace]

Our green squires represent the future of this organization. If we don't tend to them when they're green, they'll rot through and through rather than thrive.

[burnsbright]

Yessir. But you said yourself you haven't taken a squire for a long time, and rumor is that division heads get asked rather than assigned. [She doesn't name Sir Fred as the source of the "rumor".] I'm not a healer.

[While she does have a kind of low sense of self-worth, she says it without self-pity. It's a plain statement.]

[sirsolace]

Rumor will only take you so far. Mind how much stock you put in them.

[burnsbright]

[Scout shakes her head slightly, but resigns herself.] All right. Just know that I like to ask questions. [She turns away long enough to scoop her discarded hair tie from the mat.]

If I may, sir, when was your last squire, and who?

[sirsolace]

Six years past. [ There's the tiniest sliver of a moment where he all but hesitates. ] And she has passed as well.

[burnsbright]

[That hesitation showed in his sense in the Force, too, though if she hadn't been paying attention she would have missed both signs. Scout was about to put her hair back into a short tail; now she lowers her hands, making another internal note about the old Knight.]

Sir...

[should she say this or not? That maybe-offer of kindred feeling, that sense that he does have some humor in him, balanced against his nature... The Force has no guidance here. As so many other times, it's her choice.]

[Say it.]

My mentors... strongly tend to die soon after taking me on. [Kim, Maruk, the entire Temple staff, even Master Solace, for all that she hadn't been specifically interested in teaching after the Temple fell. Scout's voice has thickened a little, but she's in control.] I want [she pauses] it to stop.

[Scout exhales through her mouth, almost a sigh. And here's the part she really wishes she could phrase gracefully, but she can't without thinking longer.] I guess, sir, I would like to say that... if I can without compromising my personal - my ethics, I will strive to stay alive if I know you will do the same.

[sirsolace]

[ There's a beat, as he seems to process how to take that, and he studies her face as if finding something truly alien about her manner for a moment. But it's not judgmental, and after a moment, he smiles very tightly. ]

I've no plans for permanent retirement as of yet.

[burnsbright]

[She gazes back steadily, completely without intention to explain, and relaxes a bit at his response, more at the expression than what he actually said. Few people plan for it, after all.]

Thank you, sir.

[sirsolace]

I would hope it a matter of assumption.

Now, surely you must have more questions regarding our procedures.

[burnsbright]

[One of Scout's hands, down at her sides, flips palm-forwards for just a second, a kind of tiny shrug.]

I always have questions, sir. I'll need to know about your medicines, since they're not what I'm used to, and if and how they work differently on nonhumans. If there are particular protocols I need to follow, or a uniform. Do they observe holidays he - no, I can look that up myself. How long have you been a division head, if I can ask?

[sirsolace]

Or other orderlies can train you in such matters. You'll be allowed to shadow them before being expected to attend to the room on your own.

It's preferred for those working this wing to wear simple robes, usually white. I imagine we could find some in your size, readily.

[ A pause ] As to your other question, nearly two score years now.

[burnsbright]

[She's doing minor stretches now, really not even thinking about it, things like standing with one leg ahead and bent while the other is behind.]

I appreciate it. Are they Knights? ...Is everyone in this castle a Knight? If it's possible, could I have undyed robes? I just... I like the color better, sir, and it doesn't show sweat as much.

A score... that's twenty. You were young when you came into it. [Thinking out loud.]

[sirsolace]

Almost everyone here is a Knight, but there are others as well, who do some of the more menial labor. Wynn offers employment to some who are refugees of the Shadow World, but ill-equipped for a lifestyle of adventuring and risking their lives.

[ he finds her commentary on his age worthy of a snort ] I knew a great deal less then than I do now. Age does not figure into it.

[burnsbright]

Do they swear to anything? He said Knights and Knights in training could just leave if they wanted...

[She hand-shrugs again, this time incorporating some elbow movement, then stretches that arm, holding it against her chest] No one ever stops learning.

How long do most squires stay squires?

[sirsolace]

So far as I am aware, they swear to secrecy and complete some legal documents to that order.

The length of squiring processes can vary from as little as a month or two to half a year or more. It depends on the readiness of the squire.

[burnsbright]

That's - I see. [More surprise.]

[sirsolace]

It's hardly a precise science.

[burnsbright]

Understatement. [Scout blinks and shakes her head slightly, dismissing her half-horrified feeling.] That's to teach squires how to work with the Knights, then?

[sirsolace]

And to decide whether it's the life they truly wish to lead.