Craft
Dinner
July
2002
[ Up ]
Main
Hall and Ballroom
The echoing space of the formal
Ballroom is a mosaic of mosaics. The floor is
covered with a precise and colorful ocean, slim pillars of smooth marble
reaching up to support the balcony overhead. The low, flat ceiling
decorated
with bright golden-yellows and
reds in a depiction of a partial eclipse of
Rukbat. Beyond the cover of the balcony, the space rises in an airy arch
far overhead, an ironwork window round over the gracefully curving marble
staircase.
An elaborate mural lines the
walls, stretching from the mosiac on the floor to
the ceiling. One the 'northwall' and 'southwall' are portraits of some of
Pern's influential Masterharpers. The 'eastwall' and 'westwall' show
aspects of
harper life.
Watching from a bit of artistically carved lintel are six firelizards.
You see Muff and
Leyte
here.
Kirsyn
walks in.
Jueann
walks in.
Jellem
walks with a somber look down the curving staircase from the balcony
hallway.
Elas walks
in.
Liesana
walks in.
Kurt walks
in.
Ke'chara
blinks in from ::between::!
Ylisa walks
in from the Instrument Workshop.
Ke'chara
gently sets down the Shifting Patterned Egg.
Ke'chara
gently sets down the Glittering Sea Egg.
Jueann
looks over the Hall as it starts filling with apprentices, journeyman and
masters and sighs.
Liesana
slips in quietly, just a rustle of cloth from the hem of her skirt.
Because, oh yes, Liesana is in a skirt. A formal suit, no less, full of
starch and ruffles and severe angles, her hair braided and bound on her head and
run through with several hairpins. Someone's gone all out, it seems.
Although she manages to take a seat over with the other journeymen and senior
journeymen without incident, and folds herself easily into a chair, although
she's oddly quiet.
Jellem
walks in with his normal flute case over one shoulder and guitar in the
other, staying silent and generally out of the way for the moment
Ylisa is
standing close to the wall, also rather quiet. In fact, she appears to
be contemplating the floor, running her eyes across the mosaic as if searching
for something in its design. She's dressed in her usual restrained style,
though the dress she's wearing does have the fresh color and crisp appearance
of new fabric.
Kirsyn
herself is (nearly) always outfitted in a dress, and sidles in,
hips-a-swaying
as she peers about the area, trying to find a place that might be nice to
sit. So instead, she settles for finding a place next to Ylisa and
hoping
dearly that that will suffice. A soft 'meep' is really all there is to herald her
presence.
Elas peeks
down into the hall from the stairway, then takes up a place against
the wall at
the base of the stairs.
Jueann
makes for her chair at the master's table. She smiles at Kurt,
"Evening Kurt."
Everyone
seems to be wearing a skirt. So is Kurt, actually. Hands folded behind
his back,
he clomps down the stairs in his heavy boots, looking more like a drill
seargent than a Harper Master. His hair is slicked back, tied in a
runner's
tail with a black peice of leather. Looking over the tops of his wire rimmed
glasses, he nods to Jueann and the others before heading toward the table.
Olen blinks
in from ::between::!
At Jueann's
nod, the drudges start bringing in the food. Steaming platters of
food is set
at each table as the apprentices start digging in. Jueann smiles at Kurt,
"That's a new look for you, isn't it?"
Kurt shakes
his head. "No. Old look, new boots."
Ylisa looks
up as Kurt makes his entrance. She freezes for a couple of seconds,
eyes locked
onto the robed figure of her mentor, then manages to wipe the surprised
expression from her face. Noticing Kirsyn nearby, she smiles.
"Hello,
Kirsyn, how are you getting on? It looks like dinner's ready - shall we
find some
seats?"
Liesana
leans an arm on the table in order to chat privately with a colleague
who's
visiting from Fort. Laughter rings out from both halves of the pair, muted with
the arrival of the food however. Perhaps it's just the clothing, but
Liesana
seems a little nervous about something, twitching glances up towards the
Master's
table at regular intervals.
Jellem
moves silently to the apprentice table, after all, he's not a journeyman,
where he
sits down and idly glances around for those few that he knows well enough to
feel comfortable talking to at the moment.
Kirsyn
blinks at Kurt a couple of times before blinking and returning her eyes
towards Ylisa. "Dinner. Right. I've been getting on fine,"
she muses, giving herself a
gentle push off of the wall and adjusting her dress, nodding to her
fellow
Harper. "Dinner, we /should/ find seats. Sorry, I'm a bit new
at
Harpering
y'know."
Elas takes
a seat at the apprentice table quietly and without comment, picking
out items
of food to place on his plate before he begins eating.
As the
dinner continues, Jueann has one of the drudges bring to her several egg
pots with
fire lizard eggs in them. Smiling, she thanks the drudge. Turning to
the
apprentices, she stands. "Can I have your attention?"
Elas looks
up from his food to the call from Jueann, trying to bring his mind to
the here
and now, and out of the past.
Ylisa slips
quietly into a seat at the apprentice table, sends her firelizard
off to the
nearest perch, and turns towards Master Jueann, eyes darting
curiously
towards the pots even as she listens.
Liesana
isn't an apprentice, but gives her attention anyways, munching
thoughtfully
on a breadroll as her eyes turn and focus on the front of the room, and more
specifically on Jueann and her egg pot.
Kirsyn
blinks and looks up, eyes alighting on Jueann as she bows her head and
pays
attention like a good little harper apprentice. Kirsyn. Good little Harper
apprentice. Hah.
Jueann
frowns slightly, "Jellem? Aren't you at the wrong Table? I
thought I
promoted
you?"
Jellem
shakes his head, "No ma'am.. still a lowly little tutor, ma'am.."
Jueann
sighs, shaking her head as she turns her attention back to the eggs.
She'll deal
with that crazy tutor later. "now then eggs. I'm going to be
giving
these eggs to some of you apprentices because I've been watching you and
I've liked
what I saw."
Liesana is
grinning a little bit from her seat, watching the eggs and
apprentices'
reactions to them with a quietly amused air, even as she attempts
to keep a
low profile and just munch at her dinner in between glances.
Elas tries
to smile at the other apprentices, trying to guess wich ones will
receive the
eggs based on what little he knows about them.
And another
point goes to the crazy tutor as Jellem sits and glances at the
apprentices
around him, gauging their reactions.
Kirsyn
blinks, startled completely. Wasn't there rumors going around that
Jueann
didn't like it or something? Oy, Kirsyn is terribly confused...so she
merely
murmurs a soft "mmhmm."
At the
mention of firelizards, Ylisa's eyes search out her blue Dani, and she
doesn't
look back at Jueann until she's seen that he's perched quietly and out
of
mischief. Still giving most of her attention to the Master, but not
showing
any
particular reaction to the announcement, she starts to pick absently at her
salad.
Liesana's
left hand is idly letting the tail of her gold firelizard twine about
it, while
her right continues to wield her fork in an attempt to chase down a
few elusive
fingerroot medallions and pop them in her mouth. Trying to look
vaguely
intelligent as she chews, she leans back towards her seatmate from
earlier,
the two journeyman trying to figure out which apprentice will get an
egg.
Jueann
smiles, "As some of you may have seen, I haven't been happy lately,
actually, I
like to see harpers striving for their best and lately, I haven't
been seeing
it. However.... " she picks up a list, "The following
apprentices
will be
getting eggs from my gold Ke'chara. I'm not sure what's inside but
that's the
risk you take. Mathis, Janicka, Niara, Sadahl, and Oliver. You can
pick which
eggs after the dinner."
Kirsyn
blinks with those owlish deep brown eyes for a moment (rather
out-of-place
considering the rest of her figure) and nods. Well, she's not one
of the ones
mentioned in that little list there, so just clamps her mouth shut
abruptly
and sinks a bit in her seat. Don't look at me, don't look at me...for
the moment?
Ylisa
relaxes almost imperceptibly as the names are announced, and a slight
smile
crosses her lips. Could this be relief? She turns to Kirsyn and
says, very
quietly, "The one I've got will do me nicely. He's actually behaving quite
well
nowadays - at last!"
Elas has
disconnected.
Jueann
smiles, "Now then, we have a couple of promotions. Journeyman
Jeranium
has
recommended his mentee Erckle for sr apprentice as well as Apprentice Canie. Congradulations
you two."
Kirsyn
ooh's, and claps her hands for those being promoted, although she
herself...well,
Kirsy's not been a part of Harper for all that long, so wasn't expecting
anything. Matter of fact, she's glad to have done as well as she did.
"Amazing..."
murmurs Liesana to her seatmate with a droll twinkle to her eyes.
"The
old tub of lard actually /approves/ of someone..." The comment is
kept
carefully
sotto voce, however.
Jellem has
connected.
The
housekeeper arrives to cart Elas off to bed.
Ylisa grins
at the two who have been promoted, and joins in the clapping. "Well
done, Canie,"
she says to the nearer of the two, whom she knows slightly. Then she reaches
for her glass, for all that it contains only water, and raises it to
the more
distant of the pair.
A pair of
little giggles can be heard from the shadows of the balcony above.
It's Master
Hydelia's twin girls, peering through the palings at the goings-on down below,
and making plans as to how they can snitch some of the treats being
served for
themselves. Carefully, one after the other, the two littlings make a
stealthy
progress down the staircase. Will they be intercepted?
Jellem
smiles at the ones being promoted but otherwise stays silent, things on
his mind
Kirsyn's
eyes catch sight of the twin little girls, and Kirsy muffles a squeal.
She
/adores/ children! But now's probably not the time to go sprinting over with
cookies, y'know, so Syn merely wriggles deeper into her seat for the moment
and keep
her mouth shut.
Ylisa
concentrates on eating for a few moments, cutting meat and savouring the
rich sauce.
Then she turns to her neighbours, as there seems to be a break in the
proceedings, and asks, "I just got in from Grinstead; what's been going on
at the Hall
in the last few days?"
Jueann
smiles at Kurt, "Are you ready?" She asks softly.
Liesana
joins in the light applause for the newly knotted, before falling silent
and
concentrating on her dinner. The twins are spotted, and given a conspiratorial
wink, and a little nod of her head towards an unattended tray of meat
pastries. But then it's back to keeping a watchful eye on what Jueann is
up to.
Kurt nods
slowly, still sipping his chilled cider.
Jueann
smiles, "Every so often, we get a journeyman that excells in all they
touch.
This journeyman is such, although, she's a bit young for the title of master, by
no means, she holds the record. Now some of you may think I had an
end for
this poor person, on the contrary, I was giving her her mastery exam
when no one
else wanted to find the time to do a formal grilling. I hope in
time she'll
forgive me." Turning to Master Kurt, "Why do you go and invite this
person to
the Master Table?"
Kirsyn
blinks at the quiet interchange between Jueann and Kurt, twitching in her
seat
anxiously. Eee...and then a hand raises to her mouth and Kirsyn gaffs.
A
Master
promotion! Oooh...and Kirs settles back to watch. From the rumors
she
heard, she
just /might/ know who it is, to boot. Fingernails scraping into the
arms of her
chair aren't doing that because of /tension/ in the room. Nooo.
Kurt sets
his cider down, sparing Jueann a stonecutting Glare as he pushes
himself to
his feet, stepping away from the table without a word, his boots
echoing
through the now (hopefully) silent ballroom as he walks through the
tables. He
looks at each Journeyman and Senior Journeyman, looking right into
their eyes
to see if they think that it might be them. Nope, not you, not you...
the
black-clad Harper stops at the far end of one table, peering with dark eyes
at all
those who may be watching, letting the tension build.
Like a cell
finishing mitosis, the two twin girls split apart when reaching the
bottom of
the stairs, taking different routes to the unattended tray of goodies. But the
kidlets don't finish their raid. Nope, instead they turn around and
stare with
fascinated eyes at the Journeyman's tables after Master Jueann makes
her
announcement "Who d'ya think it is...?"
Ylisa
leaves her fork on the plate and sits up straighter, her attention now on
Kurt as he
makes his way across the room. Her eyes flick in a certain person's direction,
though: she's got her own theory about this. A grin slowly forms as
she notices
how Kurt builds up the tension.
Jueann
sighs as Kurt still haven't forgiven her for what she did but she still
had to
follow tradition.
Liesana...
twitches. Twitch. Twitchtwitch. Is she nervous? Is she
just
play-acting
for dramatic effect? Or is it a little bit of both. As Kurt makes his way
down the line of the table, she takes a steadying sip of her wine.
Jellem
watches Kurt's movements, "Get on with it.." he mutters under his
breath
Kirsyn
fidgets in her seat. Faranth, you've practically got her biting her
nails...tension
is getting to her, indeed.
Shandi begins to notice this, and
those quick
little eyes catch on all the figures in the room. FB peeks out, but
not too
far. They might start hitting on him you know.
Kurt folds
his hands behind his back, tilting his head back slightly as if
turning his
nose up haughtily. It's all for show, you see, though his presence
does tend
to be a bit intimidating, which is good, at least in Kurt's opinion.
Whirling
around, he rests his folded hands on the small of his back and walks the length
of the table, not looking at anyone else but his destination now,
dark eyes
locked on his victim. In the silent room, Jellem's voice may carry
more than
he thinks, especially as he walks past. The man in black whirls around
to Glare at
him. "Do you have something to say that is of some importance?" he
asks,
putting the spotlight on the Tutor.
Qovin walks
down the curving staircase from the balcony hallway.
Jellem
drums his fingers on the table, "Not particularly.. not that I ever
do.."
he says
with a slight shrug
Kurt nods,
lowering his brow. The room is now deathly silent, not even the sound
of
breathing audible. Kurt nods slightly, folding his hands behind his back,
still
engulfed in his performance. The usually soft spoken Harper takes a deep
breath and
belts out at the top of his lungs, his lowered tenor voice
reverberating
and echoing througout the ballroom "Then BE SILENT!" there, let
/that/
build the tension a bit. Oh, how he enjoys this...
Jellem
rolls his eyes but let's Kurt enjoy his little departure from reality by
being
quiet.. for the moment..
Kurt holds
his hands out at his sides, raising them slowly as he asks quietly,
voice
barely carrying, his dark eyes scanning the group overtop of his glasses. "Does
anybody have anything to say?" turning palms upward he gives them a few
seconds to
protest, or complain...if they /dare/.
Jueann
chuckles softly as she watches Kurt and Jellem face off yet again. Those
two.
"I swear, I'm going to lock you two in a room and throw away the key."
Kirsyn
sinks lower in her seat. She has nothing, nothing at all to say.
She's
silent as a
newborn lamb. She doesn't want to risk being kicked out of
HarperCraft,
no no.
Jellem
glances over at Jueann and rolls his eyes with great exageration at her,
just to
make sure she can see it (after all she is like.. old and stuff)
"Jest
gerron wit' it, ye young rip!" comes a voice from the shadows.
Drudge,
probably.
Leyte
, probably. But can this be proved? Nope.
Ylisa
starts a little, taken by surprise as Kurt shouts; then she realises what
he's doing,
and grins, glancing round surreptitiously at those nearby to see
their
reactions. In answer to the question, she says ... nothing, of course.
She just
keeps very, very, still.
Wonder of
wonders, an amused little smile is starting to play across Liesana's
lips as she
watches Kurt in action. Napoleon complex at work, apparently.
Although
Liesana would'nt have a clue who Napoleon was, of course.
Falada
walks in.
Kurt drops
his arms to his sides, and addresses the voice. "Then perhaps you
would like
to escort with me..." he holds out one arm ceremoniously, palm facing
downward
loosely as he turns slowly "Our new...Harper...Master..." with each
word, he
turns a degree closer to Liesana, looking down as he unpins the knot
from his
own shoulder, fastening the pin so he doesn't stab anyone, and takes a
half bow at
the waist, one hand behind his back, holding out the hand palm
upward to
Liesana, "To join us at the Master's table."
Torkenz
bounds down the curving staircase from the balcony hallway.
Jellem
claps loudly for Liesana, "Woohoo!"
Reeba
strides quickly down the curving staircase from the balcony hallway.
Qovin has
disconnected.
Jueann
chuckles, shaking her head. "Trust you Kurt to do things
freaky."
A broad
smile lights Ylisa's face as she hears who the chosen one is, and her
hands move
together of their own accord. "Liesana! Brilliant!"
She joins in the
applause enthusiastically.
Falada
joins in the applause with silent enthusiasm!
Kirsyn
ooh's! She /was/ right, how...unusual! And shoots up in her seat to
her
full height
to beam and offer congratulatory praise and such, whatever's needed and
expected, etc., etc. "Liesana!" And a couple of whoo's
follow that as
well,
hopefully masters won't do anything creepy, right? Right.
Journeywoman
Reeba enters the ballroom, unusually late, hearing sounds of joy
and
congratulations. "What's this? Liesana what? Master? Most
excellent!" she says to
those around her. Spying Jellem, she swings over to stand next to him.
Liesana is
fairly beaming, eyes alight and grinning wide enough to likely cause some
serious soreness in the morning as she stands from her seat in a rustle of her
unaccustomed skirts and takes up a stance beside Kurt. "... Thank
you,"
she manages
after a moment. "Thank you all... I'm... honoured."
Amazing. The
verbose
legal specialist is actually being brief.
Jellem
continues cheering for Liesana
Kurt breaks
into a grin, showing that it was all just a show and ceremony as he
offers his
arm to Liesana to escort her to the master's table. "Well, shall we?"
he asks,
nodding toward the table at the front.
Jueann
chuckles, "Well... just dont' stand there. Walk Liesana."
The
housekeeper arrives to cart Qovin off to bed.
Kirsyn
aww's...these things must be so emotional and special for all. She
/won't/
cry...really. Kirsyn's not prone to tears...let's all go on thinking
that.
Even if she has no particularly deep personal attachment to Liesana, you
know.
"Walk!" Shrill little pipe-up of a word.
A brief
acknowledgement to Jellem that she is here, Reeba slides down the aisle
and tries
to quietly sit at the journeyman's table without causing any sort of
distraction...this
is a big moment for her mentor after all. Listening to the
usual chant
of "walk", Reeba smiles and watches as Kurt escorts Lies.
Ylisa joins
in with the calls of 'Walk," still grinning merrily as she watches
Kurt and
Liesana.
"That
we shall," agrees Liesana as she alights on Kurt's arm, and, with a firm
glance down
at her feet to remind them that yes, they /can/ move, she begins to walk, in
cadence with the chant and grinning all the way. Oh, for this she can
certainly
forgive Jueann /completely/. In a week or so.
Jueann
chuckles as she waves Liesana to the vacant chair. "Now then, on to
business."
Falada has
produced a pocket version of the ever present sketch pad and is
recording
the event on paper.
Logfile
from Kirsyn
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