I absolutely LOVE Dracia's perspective on Jarra. It hadn't occurred to me that military standard time for suiting up wouldn't necessarily be met by all the children who'd attended a Military Academy, particularly if they were utterly uninterested in going Military. Dracia's interest in modern history - as opposed to Jarra's in pre-modern - means that while she'll have learned impact suits from the military training, she won't have had anywhere near the practice Jarra had with her history club (since we know Jarra started doing that at age 11!). Plus we all know how obsessive Jarra gets when she's passionate about doing something - like trying to beat the military standard time for suiting up, or just learning military stuff in general in order to pretend to be Military (while Dracia's known she *doesn't* want to be Military so she's actually not really tried at that stuff - she'll know more casual knowledge than Jarra does, but Jarra just did a refresher on the entire Planet First thing with watching all those info vids so her memory's far better with that than Dracia's would be). Jarra's penchant for lecturing everyone means she's actually quite good at it, while Dracia is good at feeling inadequate compared to everyone and probably tries to just hide and blend in (something I can't see Jarra ever going for). Those differences mean that Jarra is actually far better than Dracia at a lot of stuff here, and that makes things really interesting.
Ohhh, next day is where they actually start working on the site - and team 1 is chosen. I can't see team 1 as it was in the book being changed - each of those team members was so crucial in later events and I love them all! - but maybe Dracia gets team 2? I look forward to seeing how you handle that one!
Glad you liked that view! I was a bit torn about what sort of standard Jarra actually is - Earth and Air implies that there’s lots of other Earth students on a similar level to her since she’s by no means assured for team 1, but how well would that translate over to the military? Glad it doesn’t seem like I’ve got the balance between the two girls wrong!
I’m working on the bit where the teams are chosen now, and I hope people will be happy with how it’s handled :)
I do note that when her history club practiced suiting up, only three of them could do it under the 2-minute military standard, and Earth and Air seems to imply there's about 30-odd kids in the history club. That puts Jarra in the top 10% or so. So that's why she's not assured for team 1 - put all the top 10% kids together and suddenly they have a lot of competition to deal with to sort out who's *really* still top, lol. And someone who didn't want to do it won't be that good at it (though better than they think - recall the conversation between Riak and Fian in Earth Prime) and would definitely feel inadequate next to someone in the top 10% or higher.
Given that Dracia only attended Military Academy and not proper basic training (which, as much as the books somewhere say that Military Academy teaches the basic training and basic training is only for the sector recruits, we know that hereditary Military do have to do it as well from Riak's story in the 2788 short stories collection), I can see that she wouldn't have cared to master the speed. Jarra, on the other hand, is obsessively determined about anything she puts her mind to and gets crazy good at stuff because of that. So it's no wonder Dracia's comparing herself unfavorably to Jarra, lol. And Drago talks about his basic training quite a bit, but again, Drago *wanted* to be Military, so he had the same purposeful focus on being as good as he could that his cousin Jarra has. I can imagine that there have to be a decent number of kids attending Military Academies due to family being Military, that don't actually want to be Military, and so don't achieve the same standards (and their instructors probably chide them for it but since they're still teens and not actually in the Military I can imagine they just sigh and go "that one's not going to be Military" and don't worry all that match, unlike a basic training instructor who would demand them rise to the standard required). We don't know for sure, but it's a very reasonable assumption, and it makes the contrast between Dracia and Jarra, and Dracia's POV thereof, all the more realistic by including that.
I'm looking forward to reading it! Every time I see a new chapter notif email I get all excited and drop everything to read right away. :D
My reasoning for Jarra being at the top went by the impact suit she got when she was 11 - children that small are common enough on dig sites that they're manufactured, and each dig site keeps any they get rather than passing them round, but it's uncommon enough that the one Jarra got is still in use for Wren 6 years later. There were also two '12 or under' and 'about a dozen' 13 year olds at Jarra's treatment centre in 'Earth and Air' - which is a little over half the school groups at a single dig site.
Meanwhile Dracia mostly learnt things passively - in my headcanon, Military School (which all the clan kids go to until 18) is a bit like our current military schools, in that while they might be preparing students to join the military, their main focus should still be academics, Common Core etc, and also act as a permenant 'home' for kids who have parents away on assignment a lot. I think they would have streams like Jarra's did, giving the less militaristic kids a chance to specialise in something else (or at least not in military stuff). The Military Academy I'm using is a single place on the planet Academy (unlike the countless military schools) where military kids and sector recruits all go at 18 to start their proper training. In a similar situation to University Earth History, you'll have some students like Jarra who've been training for years, and some like Keon who just kinda show up (and of course the sector recruits).
Just wanted to make the difference between military schools and the Military Academy clear, since they'll come up later :)
Argh, I meant military schools when I kept saying Military Academy (I blame my general level of tiredness when replying). My head had it straight but I'm sure it wasn't clear to anyone who couldn't read my mind. XD
Yep, Jarra is definitely one of the youngest to ever go to a fringe dig site, but that goes along with her determined obsessive nature, that she would get in.
And that's essentially what I was thinking - Dracia's attitude and the fact that she's not interested in being Military means she'll have taken whichever stream did not plan for Military service, and suffered through the impact suit drills but never gotten anywhere to military standard suiting up time. Jarra looks amazing next to that, naturally. :)
Comment on Two Tells Are Better Than One
Doranwen on Chapter 4 Tue 30 Aug 2022 02:05AM UTC
Comment Actions
Ghargr18 on Chapter 4 Sat 03 Sep 2022 09:28AM UTC
Comment Actions
Doranwen on Chapter 4 Sun 04 Sep 2022 03:11AM UTC
Comment Actions
Ghargr18 on Chapter 4 Sun 04 Sep 2022 01:52PM UTC
Comment Actions
Doranwen on Chapter 4 Sun 04 Sep 2022 02:08PM UTC
Comment Actions