skylar
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Post by skylar on Jan 1, 2014 10:57:49 GMT 10
Title: Irritable Plotting
Rating: G
For: Tamari
Prompt: Lerant
Summary: Lerant doesn't see the point in Raoul taking a squire
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A squire, Lerant fumed as he saddled Lord Raoul's horse. There was no need for a squire! He was perfectly capable, so why did Sir Raoul suddenly want a squire? No good reason, no good reason at all. Lerant scowled. He supposed he was being slightly irrational – no, not irrational, perhaps irritable – allowable, since it was the middle of the night, but he couldn't even begin to understand why the idea of a squire had not even been mentioned until the day before.
And it was the girl, no less! Bad enough there was a squire, but to have it be someone that everyone would be watching? It would be easier to frighten a boy into leaving the service of Lord Raoul, simply because not as many people would care.
Damn it, he thought. This just couldn't get any worse.
He sighed and led the horses outside. There she was, talking to Sergeant Domitan, looking slightly overwhelmed but ready to go. Maybe she would decide that life in the King's Own was not for her. Lerant smiled to himself. There was, of course, no reason he couldn't help her come to that decision.
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Post by Tamari on Jan 2, 2014 7:47:49 GMT 10
Thanks, skylar! This is great. So in character.  I like that the only reason he's mad Kel's a girl is that she'll be harder to get rid of. Too true, Lerant. |
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skylar
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Post by skylar on Jan 2, 2014 7:58:22 GMT 10
I'm glad you like it! And yeah, Lerant's entire hatred of Kel in the books seems to be that she's taking his place, so I tried to stick with that. The Own seems like one of the least sexist parts of the military to me (second to the Riders, of course).
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Ankhiale
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Post by Ankhiale on Jan 2, 2014 17:21:57 GMT 10
Which is kind of funny, given that they're all men. XD
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skylar
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Post by skylar on Jan 2, 2014 20:29:21 GMT 10
Which is kind of funny, given that they're all men. XD Yeah, well, so the is the rest of the military other than the Riders (knights don't count because there's only Alanna and Kel and even though the pages train together, the squires and knights are too separated and not really a unit). I'm not saying that sexism doesn't exist in the Own *coughFlyndancough*, but it's... less than in other places, somehow. Probably because they work with the Riders so much and because Raoul is in charge, which means that A) he won't take any s*** about Alanna, etc, and B) Alanna rides with them sometimes. |
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Ankhiale
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Post by Ankhiale on Jan 3, 2014 11:15:10 GMT 10
Oh, I agree with all that. It still amuses me.
I do wonder, actually, if the Own will ever have female members. I waver on that - I could easily see it being one of the last holdouts of the boys-clubhouse mentality, not even on their part, but on the parts of those making the rules. (I am ... not sure that sentence makes sense.)
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skylar
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Post by skylar on Jan 3, 2014 12:16:21 GMT 10
In my headcanon they eventually do get female members, because some female is like "hey can I join" and then Raoul and Jon are like "...oh" and they know they'll have to come up with a good reason if they say no (because Alanna, Thayet, Kel, Buri, etc) and they don't actually want to say no, it's just that they're about to jump into a political can of worms. So they say yes, but maybe it takes long enough that the person who asks gave up and married someone or something, but still, it's not just men allowed anymore, so eventually they do get female members. And Raoul, assuming he's still in charge, gets a headache when he finally does get female applicants, because he wants them in the Own but some of them are just on the edge and he doesn't know whether to let them in or not (because he wants to give them the chance but he doesn't want to make their life absolutely terrible if it's just a slight bit too hard for them) so he goes to Kel (because her experience as a page/squire was more similar to what the females in the Own will go through than Alanna's experience) and she half laughs at him and shakes her head and half gets a headache too, because she doesn't know either. And then once there's at least 2 females in, he doesn't know whether to put them in the same squad, so they can support each other and have someone they're working closely with who they feel comfortable around, or spread them out so that people will be forced to get used to them and accept them.
....wow. brain dump. sorry 'bout that...
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Ankhiale
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Post by Ankhiale on Jan 3, 2014 18:57:38 GMT 10
I could see that. I guess the question is - did Raoul fully succeed in transforming the Own from the cushy old-boys job it was into a different, more active, and more progressive fighting force in the eyes of the public? (Or, I guess, the various nobles who can affect policy.) I mean, they seem to have managed that change at least with respect to the Bazhir - it was really the Own that led the way in incorporating Bazhir into Tortallan institutions.
Then again, Jon has a somewhat disturbing habit of going "Eh, I'm the king, I do what I want," so that might not ever be an issue. XD
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skylar
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Post by skylar on Jan 4, 2014 0:37:32 GMT 10
Then again, Jon has a somewhat disturbing habit of going "Eh, I'm the king, I do what I want," so that might not ever be an issue. XD That's kind of what I figured. And even if they did bring it to whatever council, I feel like Jon and Thayet would probably set it up in such a way (and drag Raoul into it) so that it worked, and they'd basically present it like it was the obvious thing to do (probably because they felt it was obvious, so it wouldn't even be completely on purpose... ah, the joys of being royal). |
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