[RUMOR] Crowded

[Arcane]

The dining hall is so crowded today I can't find anywhere to sit. And all that's left to eat is this onion stew. I'm glad we're doing our part in taking in the lost and all...but it's getting pretty crowded in here.

[Dragon]

Amaata looked around, frustrated, at the overburdened state of the dining hall. More than the lack of places to sit, the onion stew that had been on offer grated on Amaata. Were there, perhaps, too many people in the Weyr? That seemed odd to Amaata, at odds with her perception of what a Weyr was.

She finally found a seat, but only because someone had gotten up from it. Slipping into it hurriedly, Amaata set down her stew and made a face at it. "I really can't believe there's nothing else," she grumbled softly.

[nineofswords]

Anabella looked up as someone spoke to her. A blue rider. Hm. No one illustrious, no one truly worth her time, but she could make small talk, she supposed. She could refrain from being outright rude. After all, dragonriders outranked most holders, even a bluerider.

Anabella inclined her head politely in acknowledgement. "It is a truly paltry offering for a meal for the protectors of Pern," she said. "Our leadership should speak to the Holders and demand more from their tithes. Or else insist that the holders come and collect the holdless in our midst so that the food wouldn't be picked over by the time the rest of us get a chance to come and eat."

[Dragon]

Demand more tithes? Somehow that didn't sit right with Amaata. It was hardly the fault of the holds that High Reaches Weyr had decided to take in the holdless on their own, after all. Not that Amaata knew what the right solution was.

There was a reason she wasn't in politics.

"Why should the holds suffer for a decision that was purely on the leadership of the Weyr?" Amaata asked carefully. Surely that meant it was on the Weyr to find a solution. Perhaps eventually the ex-holdless would contribute, but until then there would be growing pains.

[nineofswords]

Anabella very slowly lowered her mug at this rider's question. Was this one truly that dense that she didn't understand how this worked. Anabella spoke very slowly, to be sure that this person would understand her. "Well," she said. "If the Weyr can't feed its riders, they can't fight thread. And then the Hold starves too."

She shook her head and began eating delicately again, and stopped talking slowly. "Which is why it was ill-advised to invite holdless here so shortly after a famine. We do not have enough of a buffer to defend against empty stomachs to be inviting even more growling ones into our midst..."

[Dragon]

There were definitely reasons that Amaata didn't want to be in any sort of leadership position. Maybe someday she'd be a Wingsecond or even a Wingleader, but that was it, and not any time soon. She was only thirty, after all, and Kuroth wasn't quite seven yet. They were young yet, and she wasn't sure she ever wanted to be promoted past her current position.

"Obviously the people of the Weyr have to be fed" - she included the dragonkin in 'people' without thinking about it - "but this is our problem, not a problem for the holds. The Weyr is responsible for the holds, and part of what that means is that we don't abuse them just because it's convenient."

She wasn't sure how she felt, exactly, about inviting the Holdless to move in ... but that sort of decision was above her station.