Well, at least it seemed she wasn’t the only person here with a truly ordinary background.  Mumbling an apology, Addison sat down on her bed and studied the boy across the room.  She grinned when he mentioned knocking over a bookcase pretending to be a Warder.  “I haven’t even touched a sword, so you’re definitely better than I am.  I grew up on a farm in Braden’s Hill, but couldn’t stand the thought of just...  I don’t know, settling down and being married and having kids and working on a farm.  I wanted to do something with my life, something important or... I don’t know.  Anything but a “normal” li...”

She was cut off by the door banging open.  Whoever this was followed the same routine Dagen had before actually entering the room.  Considering he walked right in, Addi assumed this as the Sandre fellow Dagen had mentioned.  Their fourth roommate seemed to be in rough shape.  Was training really that hard?  Sandre glanced at her, then looked at Balyn and made a comment, seemingly ignoring her.  Was he shy, perhaps?  Addi stood to introduce herself...

And immediately sat back down, eyes wide, as he undid his belt and dropped his pants.  If Addison had thought her face had gone red when she was with Elyan, it paled (again the pun) in comparison to now.  It wasn’t that she was thirteen and the very mention of sex made her giggle, but...  She’d never actually seen a man naked.  Well, at least now she knew whether or not the boys would be uncomfortable changing in front of her, if only it didn’t make her feel so very, very uncomfortable.

When she realised she was staring, she whipped around, turning back towards Balyn who seemed rather amused by the situation.  Addi would have glared if her face wasn’t frozen in a state of horrified shock.  Her trance was broken by the slamming of the door.

Balyn’s translation of events sent Addison into a fit of rage.  He thought she and Balyn were...  Okay, so the mention of sex didn’t make her giggle, it made her blush like the sun.  It wasn’t like anyone talked about it in Braden’s Hill—not around her anyway.  She knew what was going on when a boy and a girl were in the hayloft or in the woods or...  But no one talked about it until some poor girl got pregnant and then everyone whispered about which boy “did that to her”.

Obviously this Sandre didn’t think she could be a Warder any more than anyone else.  Addi couldn’t stand it.  She would do this!  She’d show them all!  Mumbling “Excuse me a moment” to Balyn, she stamped into the hall.  A few moments of searching found her the person she was looking for.

“Hey!”  He didn’t turn, so she ran after him and tapped his shoulder.  “I am not sleeping with Balyn.  I am your roommate and a Tower Trainee!”

Three boys?  Oh boy—all puns intended.  She was just barely wrapping her mind around this concept: what was she supposed to do when she changed?  What happened when she... well... that “time of the month” rolled around?  And what about them?  They were, after all, boys and she was, of course, a girl and...  Light!  Damn, she was blushing again.

Crash! went the door and Addi turned, still red in the face, and was very confused to see Dagen suddenly standing in the door again.  Then came Dagen’s voice behind her, then in front of her; her head snapped back and forth a few times before she made sense of it all.  Twins?  How was she supposed to tell them apart?  By the time she understood everything that had just gone on, Dagen had left and Balyn had replaced him—not that she could be entirely sure.  Addison seriously hoped that this Sandre fellow looked nothing like either of the brothers.

Balyn stuck out his hand and she shook it.  At least the twins seemed friendly... or at least they did until Balyn’s final comment: “So what brings a pretty girl like you to the yards?  Surely you don't want to become all muscle bound like us men.”

He thought she was pretty?  Despite being rather taken aback by the comment, it made her even more defensive.  Did he think she couldn’t be a Warder?  Did he think she was “too pretty” and should have stayed on the farm and gotten married like every other girl her age?  She’d already pleaded with Dragar so he would let her enrol as a trainee, would she have to convince her roommates as well?  What about the rest of the Yards?  Was every woman who became a trainee subjected to these reservations?  Or was there something about her that wasn’t... Warderly?

Feet apart, arms crossed beneath her chest: as defensible a stance as her body knew.  “Yes I do.”

'gratz!

*rolls in the keg*

The man stood.  Suddenly, Addison realised he was a soldier and not simply a desk clerk.  Dragar was tall and muscular; the armour he wore didn’t seem to hamper his movements at all.  She glanced at the sword propped against the wall that she hadn’t noticed upon her entrance.  His voice had an edge that Addison had never encountered before; he did not speak unkindly, but was gruff seemingly without intending to be.  He was a soldier—the first that Addi had actually encountered.  She tried to imagine herself years from now like him.  Her romanticised notions of legendary warriors labelled him the “strong silent” type.  Who would she become after years of training?

Again he asked the question but she still wasn’t sure how to answer.  Hers wasn’t the story that spoke of legendary courage or determination, but she could hardly make up some sort of story on the spot.  Addi doubted that lying would go over well; having Dragar standing over her intimidated her more than she was willing to admit.  So, here goes the truth.

“All my life I’ve dreamed of being anything other than a farmer’s daughter or a farmer’s wife.  My father and Jake, everyone told me that I was too old to dream about being in stories.  I don’t want to be ordinary.  I want to be more; I want my life to mean something.”  She was desperately trying to prove that she could do this—to herself as much as Dragar.  She just couldn’t seem to find the right words.

“When Jake asked me to marry him and told me that being his wife should be enough for me, I knew it wasn’t and so I left.  Eventually I found my way here and so I went to the White Tower to become an Aes Sedai, but the Mistress of Novices person said I couldn’t channel and she pointed me here and then I saw women in the Yards and so I decided I wanted to be a Warder since I couldn’t be an Aes Sedai but...”  She was rambling, so much so that she had to take a break just to gasp for breath.  The way Dragar was looking at her, Addison realised she must be making the Warders Yard sound like “second best” option.

For the second time that day, Addi was pleading for some sort of destiny.  “I just don’t want to be ordinary.”

A noise at the door.

Addi’s head snapped around in time to see a retreating back.  Moments later, the boy stood in the doorframe, looking at her.  Were men and women allowed to share the same room?  Back home the idea would have been scandalous but here...  Well, the Warders Yard let women be warriors.  Addison was about to gather up her few belongings and fins another room when he asked if she was “their” new roommate—actually, it was more like a statement. 

“Is that okay?”  He nodded and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief.  Dagen seemed nice enough, though apparently a little scatter-brained.  “I’m Addi Thwait.”  She considered sticking out her hand to shake his, but considering how stupid it had made her feel with Elyan, decided against it.

Standing, Addison began snooping around the room for Dagen’s sword.  How exactly did he lose it?  Wasn’t a warrior’s sword the most important part of him?  She felt a little guilty searching through the things of people she hadn’t yet met, and decided to stick mostly to whatever was in plain view or on her bed.  Dagen’s sword was most definitely not in her still-folded blankets nor hidden under her mattress.  Feeling rather stupid, she got down on hands and knees and checked under each of the beds.  Nope.

“So...  Who else is rooming with uh... us?”

Ya, damn those oldbies! :D

*whistles innocently*

*plops self somewhere in the middle and throws random objects at both sides*

well, I believe Sangreal will be getting promoted shortly after this RP, so with his (and Mat's) permission you might be able to take his place in the room after he gets promoted

and you most definitely have permission to hop on the thread

Sorry for the wait folks, but it's up:

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,40262.0.html

gawkers, hecklers, escalators etc. are welcome to gawk, heckle, escalte, etc.

The metropolis of Tar Valon was unlike anything a little farm girl had ever experienced before.  There were shops that sold food and buildings called banks were people put their money; there were a half dozen inns and taverns within spitting distance.  Men and women bathed together in buildings specifically for that purpose and there were brothels if one wandered down the wrong streets.  Shops sold food, tools, jewellery, trinkets, and clothes—anything one wished for was available.  Buskers performed on corners, hats out for money, bumping elbows with beggars who left out similar, if more grungy, hats.  People didn’t bother to stop and chat with one another; they simply went about their business.  Each face came and went, the mind holding on to the image for a moment before it faded into oblivion.

It was from this mass of bodies that Addison emerged, clutching a bundle wrapped in paper.  She had thought herself quite worldly coming to the White Tower via the cities of Caemlyn and Cairhien; however, upon her first shopping foray in Tar Valon, Addi realised she was still just a farm girl who’d always eaten food grown on the farm and worn clothes made and mended by her.  The pouch of coins she’d been given by the Aes Sedai, who she’d eventually learned was the Mistress of Novices, was the first considerable sum of money she’d ever owned and didn’t have a clue as to whether the seamstress she’d just visited had overcharged her.

Considering she’d come to Tar Valon with a single dress that had lasted her through an entire trip from Andor, it had been time for some new clothes.  When Addi had stepped into the Warders Yard and seen the female trainees and guards, she’d immediately noticed that none of them had worn dresses.  So, after leaving the Mistress of Trainees’ office, currently occupied by the woman’s assistant, she’d gone into the city in search of breeches and shirts.

Now she was making her way towards the... barracks, were they called, where she was supposed to find a room and bed to sleep on—possibly with roommates.  Excitement and nervousness warred in her gut while she wandered halls.  Trainees wandered passed her, glancing at her ragged dress curiously.  Addison couldn’t help but stare at the few female trainees that she passed, which seemed to make a few of them rather uncomfortable, they glared.

Peeking in an open door, nobody seemed to be in.  Taking a hesitant step in, she noticed one bed with no belongings near it.  She tentatively laid her things in the empty trunk at its foot and sat down, trying to guess at what her roommates would be like by the things scattered around the room.

Elyan’s parting words stuck in her mind, the rebuttal to a thousand doubts.  “The Guard won’t reject you.”  Not like the White Tower.  But what if she wasn’t strong enough?  “The Guard won’t reject you.”  What if she couldn’t do some... test that was necessary to become a Warder?  “The Guard won’t reject you.”  What if they only accepted people who already knew how to use a sword?  “The Guard won’t reject you.”  What if this?  What if that?  What if a thousand things?  It didn’t matter, when the voice came, she somehow managed to open that door without turning back.

A man sat behind a desk piled high with papers; he hardly bothered to glance up at her when Addi walked through the door.  She stood, wondering if she should curtsey as she had for the Aes Sedai, but warriors didn’t curtsey—should she bow?  Kneel?  Make some sort of heroic gesture?  Before she could decide, the man gestured for her to sit in the chair. With a barely discernible jerking motion that was half-head nod, half-bend at the waist, half-bob in curtsy fashion, Addison sat feeling like a complete idiot.  She just hoped he hadn’t noticed her stumble.

The man introduced himself as the assistant to the Mistress of Trainees; Addi had been wondering about this considering, well, he was a man and mistresses were... not.  The he asked the question Elyan had, Addison still didn’t have a decent response.  Not one that would make this man let her train to become a Warder, in any case.  “I didn’t want to be a farmer” just wasn’t the stuff of a determined warrior.  Neither was “I couldn’t be a Novice”.  Blood and ashes, why had her life been so very ordinary when it was clear to her that she was so much more than a farmer’s wife?  She’d been born in the wrong town—into the wrong family.

“I’m uh... Addison Twait from Braden’s Hill,” blood and ashes, she was stumbling over her own name “and I...  I want to be a Warder?”  The last bit came out in a rush.  What had possessed her to make that statement into a question?  “I mean, I do want to become a Warder.  Uh... sir.”  The warriors in the stories always called people “sir”.

Blushing again as she took Elyan’s hand, Addison tried to erase the flutter in her belly.  They were going to be colleagues, not... anything else.  When he asked her if this what she really wanted, there was hesitation.  Was this really what she wanted?  Or was she jumping into this too soon, with too little thought, because of her disappointment in the White Tower?  But what else was there?  Going home?  Not a chance in hell!  Not with her tail tucked between her legs, defeated by her apparent inability to channel!  This was what she wanted—this chance.

“Stubborn fool.” Mumbled under his breath, Addi barely heard the words.  She glanced back over at him, wondering if he was referring to her.  Was she being a stubborn fool?  Not just giving up on this “ridiculous daydream”, as Jake had always referred to it, and going home to “reality”.  Why hadn’t she ever had these doubts before standing in the, suddenly not-so-proverbial, doorframe of her future?

Elyan stood behind her, expecting her to knock on the door to the... Mistress of Trainees had he called her?  She’d been so certain in the Yards.  What if this Mistress of Trainees she couldn’t be a Warder either?  What would she do then?

Gulping, she knocked on the door.

I love your handle... seriously

Welcome here!

who said I actually did anything?

I just did nothing in a far warmer climate! ;)

I work very hard on my image :D

I couldn't let Mae's bio be double the size of Stel's :P  HAD to add the history bit on house Liones

Handle: AddiBeth

Real Name: Alyssa

WT Chars: Estel Liones

WY Chars: Addison Thwait

Email: addbeth20@hotmail.com

MSN: switch_ya_sisters@hotmail.com

Skype: Alyssatheblonde

ya, there may have been a slight caffeine overdose to blame for that ;)

heh, I put Addi's bio together in under 2h

well, re-submitted Estel's bio, so by the time I get back from vacation hopefully that'll all be approved and she can be back to generally torture the hell out of you all :P  I would love to RP with you new faces, mind you, she's probably not a great "recruiting" face--actually, she'd probably scare your chars away from the Blue Ajah so uh... ya

Ely, I'd love to RP with you when I get back, especially since Elyssa and Stel were friendlyish back in the day (plus Orion will have died a month or so before)  Would Ely be likely to approach Stel, considering Stel's not exactly the social-type?

by the way, I could try to prod Serena back if she's got the time, plus I saw Kieryn on the WT boards a while back, might throw an email her way too

heh, but most of that was copy and paste.  I totally re-wrote mine and in under a week!

we could also try to compete for who's weaker... :P

Well, it's the time of year where I get a week off school and run like hell towards the nearest beach.

I may be get on a little tomorrow morning, but after that I'm gone to next Sunday.

Addi shook her head.  “I only got to Tar Valon today.”  She considered admitting to having wanted to be an Aes Sedai but, despite her new dream, the failure was still too fresh.  “I actually haven’t registered... signed-up... or whatever it is that new trainees are supposed to do.  To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I’m doing.”  He looked at her but she couldn’t hold his gaze.

“I’ve never understood just settling for normal.  I can’t see the attraction of getting married, raising kids and living on a farm.”  What would Jake do if he saw her flirting, as this was as close to flirting as Addi got, with Elyan?  Would he be disappointed?  Jealous?  Angry?  With her or with him?  She shook her head.  What did it matter?  She didn’t have those sorts of feelings for Jake—did she?  What if Jake had come with her?  Would things be different?  Some of the red in her cheeks faded as her mind struggled with confusion.  She wasn’t here for boys!  She was here to become a Warder!  Romance was for girls who wanted to get married and have babies and stay on farms and...  Warders were totally focused on their Aes Sedai.

But Elyan was just offering to help her find her way around—that was all.  “I don’t suppose you could show me where to... sign up or whatever?”