That damned book again.
RL Date: 5/18/09
IC Date: 10/10/19 --Stole log from Kwei. :)
The venerable quadrangle of the Harper Hall extends from the southeastern angle of the Fort palisade lounging alongside its Healer twin. The three wings that enclose the main courtyard are solidly roofed with orange tile and constructed of sturdy gray stone, the walls kept in good repair by local stonemasons. A wide archway provides entrance into the hall itself, foot traffic relatively busy throughout the day, but tapering off at night. Inside, the courtyard is paved with smooth, flat stones and the walls lined with stone benches where harpers come to sit and rest between classes and duties. The sound of music drifting out of open windows is almost constant, be it played or sung, regardless of the season, though things do quiet down after sunset.
Just outside Harper Hall, sandwiched between its northern wing and the southern wing of the Healer Hall, a series of gardens serving culinary, medicinal and decorative puposes are bordered by the cliff wall to the east and open meadow to the west. The hold road travels northward to the hold itself and eventually to Ruatha and the Reaches and in the opposite direction far south to Southern Boll and the Weaver craft.
It's an autumn morning and all the resident apprentices and journeymen are in their classes by now. Kwei on the other hand is posted now so he has a lot more freedom and is on his way across the courtyard, a box carried in his arms.
Just outside the courtyard, just on the other side of that wall, a blue dragon touches down-- appropriate color, given the location-- and it's only a few minutes later that a smartly-dressed Jaeyi comes busily under the arch with a cloth-wrapped bundle held in both arms. She's halfway across the paving stones, looking very serious and pensive and rushed, before something tricks her attention, something from the corner of her eyes. "Kwei?" Like, really surprised to run into him, of all people.
Kwei glances round at the mention of his name, whether it required Harper super hearing or not. "Hey Jaeyi." He greets her with a big grin appearing on his face. "What brings you here?" He asks her as he pads over towards her, looking her up and down in the process. "And so smartly dressed as well, must be something important?" He asks, obviously so intrigued that she's here and dying to find out the reason why.
"Iiiiii'd ask you the same thing," begins Jaeyi doubtfully, a half-step taken backward like she needs to keep speculative distance between herself and this strange appearance of the three-apples-high Harper. "But I suppose you probably have more occasion to be here than I do. Uhmn." Hesitant, hesitant, hesitant, her eyes chase a busy-looking fellow in a Journeyman's knot while he jogs across the courtyard, leaving her loathe to confess, "I... came to get something repaired."
Kwei pauses on the way when she takes a step back, his face taking on the aspect of a kicked puppy. "Yeah this is my home hall." He explains softly, "Is everything okay?" He asks her, his eyes coming up to try and catch hers as he takes a few tentative steps towards her. "If it's something the hall can do, I'll take you wherever you need, or do it myself for you if I'm able?" He pauses before adding a soft. "If you'll let me?"
Jaeyi, from her pocket, pulls out a bit of paper that, at one point, was probably quite legible. It has since been laundered and is now a mess of ink and pulp. "Kaida gave me her sister's name, only I can't read it any more. It starts with an I?" The kicked-puppy look does soften her concern considerably, and-- with an apologetic smile-- she shuffles that step close to explain, "I've sort of ruined something? And I have to get it fixed." At which point she holds out her cloth-wrapped bundle, which is very obviously a book once she's not clutching it like it's her first-born.
"Iryan, I know what she looks like, younger version of Kaida, but I've never met her, just caught a glimpse the other day." Replies Kwei. "Though if it's a book in there." He shakes his head and tilts his head to her, a mixture of amused admonishment showing. "You should have said something, my journeyman is a records keeper, that's the kind of work he thrives on and has lectured me on for what seems like turns. I have most of the stuff back at the weyr for the repair of hides and books." He looks at her with a smile. "So do you want me to take you to Iryan if I can find her, or do you fancy a bit of time with me in one of the workrooms here, they'll have much better facilities than I've got at the weyr."
Here's the part that's got Jaeyi, the least skittish person on the planet under normal circumstances, looking perturbed; "It's a really, uhmn, important book? And I think-- well, just look at it, and you'll see. It needs to look pretty when it's all fixed. Which I'm supposed to pay for." That last being the worst of it. "But I'd rather let you look at it than..." Trailing off, she nods toward a particularly severe looking fellow who pauses to eyeball a pair of apprentices that he assumes are just dallying in the courtyard.
"Important or not, he's hidebound and knows his stuff which I've been patiently listening to and practising during most of my class time." Kwei tells her. "So don't worry about that, come with me." He bobs his head towards one of the doors off the courtyard and starts off that way, bobbing his head to the master. "Morning Master Findrell." He greets the severe looking fellow as he leads the way to one of the library workrooms.
A smile, one of her better ones, finds its way toward the Master Findrell, but Jaeyi doesn't chime with her own greeting straightaway. Instead, following along after Kwei, she adds in a lowered voice, "Thank you. I think I'd still be standing there dumbly if I hadn't run in to you. Or crying and asking someone to tell me where I could find Kaida's sister, her name starts with an I, or Rodric please. And I hate crying in public."
"I don't think crying would get you so much done round here, most of the apprentices would probably just laugh at you I'm afraid." Says Kwei as he leads the way through the hall until he gets to a door and peeks inside to make sure it's empty before pushing the door open fully onto a workroom, shelves full of old books and hides and a couple of work benches that have all the tools of the librarians trade. "This'll do." He says with a smile, walking in to dump his box down on one of the benches, turning to hold his hands out to her, one of his more charmingly enthusiastic smiles in place. "Let me see what's happened to it."
"I can tell you what's happened to it." Jaeyi's trying to steal the thunder? Soften the blow? "I burnt it." That after a steeling breath, just before she unties the top of the bag containing the book and slides it down, revealing the charred, warped back cover of it first. "It smells weird in here," she adds, nose twitching while her eyes dart speculatively around the room before coming back to Kwei. And his smile. "Please don't look so very happy about this, it's really depressing me."
Kwei chuckles and reaches over to tap her nose with one of his fingers. "The smile is for you, not what you've done, I'll assume a look of shock and indignation when I have to try and open it up." And he does wince a little as the book is uncovered. "Put it down and lets see what we can do." He says, offering her a reassuring look before he moves and grabs a spare stool and pulls it over to sit next to the one currently at the desk before sits down on the other. "Sorry about the smell, it's probably the glues we use."
Jaeyi, despondently, "I think it's just the smell of too many harpers in one place. Smells like..." She can't find the word, so she just kind of moves on, settling on the stool, plopping down the book, lucky thing, and she folds her empty hands quite prettily on her lap-- still in the 'better find someone I can impress who'll take pity on me' mindset that started out this adventure. "It's been a big-black-cloud over my head for weeks. Fix it and you can be my hero."
Kwei touches the cover and runs his fingers over the cover while he thinks. "What, do I smell strange, or just the ones here?" He's sounding a bit insulted given how much care he takes to make himself presentable usually. He shakes his head and goes back to the book, trying to see just how much he can pry the back pages apart without them just crumbling to ash in his hands. "The recipes in the back of this, do you know what they are or can you get copies of them if I need to transcribe them onto fresh sheets?"
Jaeyi leans over, since that's an inviting moment, and takes a sniff in the general direction of Kwei's collar. "I think you might have lost that Whatever Smell by now, but try not to spend too much time around here?" Back to business, she watches the handling of the pages, noting, "I've got copies of most of them already." In the bag, on little notecards that she takes out to hold out on one hand-- then quickly retracts. "Only, you can't laugh at my handwriting or I'll cry and you'll feel terrible."
Kwei turns his head when she leans over to sniff his collar. "I don't intend to spend too much time here, I was just picking the stuff up for the weyr that they didn't have ready for me last time I was over." He smiles ever so pleasantly at her. "I don't think I'd forgive myself if I made you cry, I'm more into the helping the beautiful damsel in distress." He starts to peel back pages as gently as he can, eventually though he picks up a thin bladed knife from the counter and dips it into some clear mixture in a tub on the desk, he slips it into the cracks between the pages, and rubs it gently in one direction, the pages separating slowly with each stroke.
Having coveted this book for all this time, Jaeyi has a little trouble simply relinquishing it to someone else's control, even Kwei's, and her fingers start dancing itchily on the edge of the table. Crawling over. Crawling over. "You know, much as I trust your fingers implicitly..." She still barely contains her cringe watching him do such things to that poor book.
Kwei continues the delicate work and lets face it she already knows how gentle and delicate his fingers are. "Shush and stop moving your fingers please, last thing you want is me to get distracted while I'm slicing these pages apart." He stops long enough to turn and face her. "I'm going to have to cut these back pages out, then cut new pages, scribe them and then rebind the back half of the book." He tells her, "Is it your own book?" He asks.
Jaeyi, blinking, "Did you just shush me?" She waits to ask that haughty little question till Kwei helpfully looks her way, and how shocked those big-brown-eyes can look when they need to. The fate of the book isn't really all that important, answered with a dismissive, "It's not mine, it's the Weyr's, so just try to make it as inexpensive as possible. But did you just shush me?"
Kwei nods his head as he gets his answer and can't help but smile at her expression. "Pretty, adorable and lovely as you are Jaeyi, I really don't want to mess this up for you." He tries to explain as gently as he can. "So yeah I did say shush."
Jaeyi makes a face. Not a pretty, adorable, lovely one. "Shush," she echoes dismally, sliding off the edge of a stool in a show of faux hurt and dismay. "I suppose I'll just go off and find someone who won't be quite so bothered by my presence." Except she pauses, the edgy fingers reaching toward Kwei's shoulder for a moment. Genuine rather than play-hurt; "Thank you. You really can't imagine..."
Kwei lets a brief sigh escape as he looks up at her, seeing as she's standing now. He lifts his hand to clasp her fingers against his shoulder. "If you want, find the kitchens and get some lunch for yourself, I can bring this back to the weyr with me after I've done as much as I need to here. It'll be a couple of days of my free time at least to get it all done properly." His return smile is just as genuine. "Don't worry about it Jaeyi. I'll be your Hero just like you asked." He says, more than a little teasing within that.
There's a moment's pause at the word kitchen, a brief flash of merriment behind those dramatically big-sad-eyes, and Jaeyi remarks, "I'm sure I can figure out what to do about food, but thank you for the suggestion." A slight shuffle of her fingers, enough to squeeze the ends of Kwei's briefly, and she slides them out from under his, along his arm, and off to clasp behind her back. "I'll think up some way to make it up to you, hero. Promise," is her parting vow.
"Very true." Kwei replies with a grin about the kitchens. Returning the light squeeze, a flash of affection crossing his face before she speaks again, giving him a promise he's not likely to forget. "I'll remember that dear." He says blowing her a kiss before he turns half his attention back to the tools and the book in front of him. The other half of his attention is the constant glances towards Jaeyi until she does actually leave, then it's back to work.
IC Date: 10/10/19 --Stole log from Kwei. :)
The venerable quadrangle of the Harper Hall extends from the southeastern angle of the Fort palisade lounging alongside its Healer twin. The three wings that enclose the main courtyard are solidly roofed with orange tile and constructed of sturdy gray stone, the walls kept in good repair by local stonemasons. A wide archway provides entrance into the hall itself, foot traffic relatively busy throughout the day, but tapering off at night. Inside, the courtyard is paved with smooth, flat stones and the walls lined with stone benches where harpers come to sit and rest between classes and duties. The sound of music drifting out of open windows is almost constant, be it played or sung, regardless of the season, though things do quiet down after sunset.
Just outside Harper Hall, sandwiched between its northern wing and the southern wing of the Healer Hall, a series of gardens serving culinary, medicinal and decorative puposes are bordered by the cliff wall to the east and open meadow to the west. The hold road travels northward to the hold itself and eventually to Ruatha and the Reaches and in the opposite direction far south to Southern Boll and the Weaver craft.
It's an autumn morning and all the resident apprentices and journeymen are in their classes by now. Kwei on the other hand is posted now so he has a lot more freedom and is on his way across the courtyard, a box carried in his arms.
Just outside the courtyard, just on the other side of that wall, a blue dragon touches down-- appropriate color, given the location-- and it's only a few minutes later that a smartly-dressed Jaeyi comes busily under the arch with a cloth-wrapped bundle held in both arms. She's halfway across the paving stones, looking very serious and pensive and rushed, before something tricks her attention, something from the corner of her eyes. "Kwei?" Like, really surprised to run into him, of all people.
Kwei glances round at the mention of his name, whether it required Harper super hearing or not. "Hey Jaeyi." He greets her with a big grin appearing on his face. "What brings you here?" He asks her as he pads over towards her, looking her up and down in the process. "And so smartly dressed as well, must be something important?" He asks, obviously so intrigued that she's here and dying to find out the reason why.
"Iiiiii'd ask you the same thing," begins Jaeyi doubtfully, a half-step taken backward like she needs to keep speculative distance between herself and this strange appearance of the three-apples-high Harper. "But I suppose you probably have more occasion to be here than I do. Uhmn." Hesitant, hesitant, hesitant, her eyes chase a busy-looking fellow in a Journeyman's knot while he jogs across the courtyard, leaving her loathe to confess, "I... came to get something repaired."
Kwei pauses on the way when she takes a step back, his face taking on the aspect of a kicked puppy. "Yeah this is my home hall." He explains softly, "Is everything okay?" He asks her, his eyes coming up to try and catch hers as he takes a few tentative steps towards her. "If it's something the hall can do, I'll take you wherever you need, or do it myself for you if I'm able?" He pauses before adding a soft. "If you'll let me?"
Jaeyi, from her pocket, pulls out a bit of paper that, at one point, was probably quite legible. It has since been laundered and is now a mess of ink and pulp. "Kaida gave me her sister's name, only I can't read it any more. It starts with an I?" The kicked-puppy look does soften her concern considerably, and-- with an apologetic smile-- she shuffles that step close to explain, "I've sort of ruined something? And I have to get it fixed." At which point she holds out her cloth-wrapped bundle, which is very obviously a book once she's not clutching it like it's her first-born.
"Iryan, I know what she looks like, younger version of Kaida, but I've never met her, just caught a glimpse the other day." Replies Kwei. "Though if it's a book in there." He shakes his head and tilts his head to her, a mixture of amused admonishment showing. "You should have said something, my journeyman is a records keeper, that's the kind of work he thrives on and has lectured me on for what seems like turns. I have most of the stuff back at the weyr for the repair of hides and books." He looks at her with a smile. "So do you want me to take you to Iryan if I can find her, or do you fancy a bit of time with me in one of the workrooms here, they'll have much better facilities than I've got at the weyr."
Here's the part that's got Jaeyi, the least skittish person on the planet under normal circumstances, looking perturbed; "It's a really, uhmn, important book? And I think-- well, just look at it, and you'll see. It needs to look pretty when it's all fixed. Which I'm supposed to pay for." That last being the worst of it. "But I'd rather let you look at it than..." Trailing off, she nods toward a particularly severe looking fellow who pauses to eyeball a pair of apprentices that he assumes are just dallying in the courtyard.
"Important or not, he's hidebound and knows his stuff which I've been patiently listening to and practising during most of my class time." Kwei tells her. "So don't worry about that, come with me." He bobs his head towards one of the doors off the courtyard and starts off that way, bobbing his head to the master. "Morning Master Findrell." He greets the severe looking fellow as he leads the way to one of the library workrooms.
A smile, one of her better ones, finds its way toward the Master Findrell, but Jaeyi doesn't chime with her own greeting straightaway. Instead, following along after Kwei, she adds in a lowered voice, "Thank you. I think I'd still be standing there dumbly if I hadn't run in to you. Or crying and asking someone to tell me where I could find Kaida's sister, her name starts with an I, or Rodric please. And I hate crying in public."
"I don't think crying would get you so much done round here, most of the apprentices would probably just laugh at you I'm afraid." Says Kwei as he leads the way through the hall until he gets to a door and peeks inside to make sure it's empty before pushing the door open fully onto a workroom, shelves full of old books and hides and a couple of work benches that have all the tools of the librarians trade. "This'll do." He says with a smile, walking in to dump his box down on one of the benches, turning to hold his hands out to her, one of his more charmingly enthusiastic smiles in place. "Let me see what's happened to it."
"I can tell you what's happened to it." Jaeyi's trying to steal the thunder? Soften the blow? "I burnt it." That after a steeling breath, just before she unties the top of the bag containing the book and slides it down, revealing the charred, warped back cover of it first. "It smells weird in here," she adds, nose twitching while her eyes dart speculatively around the room before coming back to Kwei. And his smile. "Please don't look so very happy about this, it's really depressing me."
Kwei chuckles and reaches over to tap her nose with one of his fingers. "The smile is for you, not what you've done, I'll assume a look of shock and indignation when I have to try and open it up." And he does wince a little as the book is uncovered. "Put it down and lets see what we can do." He says, offering her a reassuring look before he moves and grabs a spare stool and pulls it over to sit next to the one currently at the desk before sits down on the other. "Sorry about the smell, it's probably the glues we use."
Jaeyi, despondently, "I think it's just the smell of too many harpers in one place. Smells like..." She can't find the word, so she just kind of moves on, settling on the stool, plopping down the book, lucky thing, and she folds her empty hands quite prettily on her lap-- still in the 'better find someone I can impress who'll take pity on me' mindset that started out this adventure. "It's been a big-black-cloud over my head for weeks. Fix it and you can be my hero."
Kwei touches the cover and runs his fingers over the cover while he thinks. "What, do I smell strange, or just the ones here?" He's sounding a bit insulted given how much care he takes to make himself presentable usually. He shakes his head and goes back to the book, trying to see just how much he can pry the back pages apart without them just crumbling to ash in his hands. "The recipes in the back of this, do you know what they are or can you get copies of them if I need to transcribe them onto fresh sheets?"
Jaeyi leans over, since that's an inviting moment, and takes a sniff in the general direction of Kwei's collar. "I think you might have lost that Whatever Smell by now, but try not to spend too much time around here?" Back to business, she watches the handling of the pages, noting, "I've got copies of most of them already." In the bag, on little notecards that she takes out to hold out on one hand-- then quickly retracts. "Only, you can't laugh at my handwriting or I'll cry and you'll feel terrible."
Kwei turns his head when she leans over to sniff his collar. "I don't intend to spend too much time here, I was just picking the stuff up for the weyr that they didn't have ready for me last time I was over." He smiles ever so pleasantly at her. "I don't think I'd forgive myself if I made you cry, I'm more into the helping the beautiful damsel in distress." He starts to peel back pages as gently as he can, eventually though he picks up a thin bladed knife from the counter and dips it into some clear mixture in a tub on the desk, he slips it into the cracks between the pages, and rubs it gently in one direction, the pages separating slowly with each stroke.
Having coveted this book for all this time, Jaeyi has a little trouble simply relinquishing it to someone else's control, even Kwei's, and her fingers start dancing itchily on the edge of the table. Crawling over. Crawling over. "You know, much as I trust your fingers implicitly..." She still barely contains her cringe watching him do such things to that poor book.
Kwei continues the delicate work and lets face it she already knows how gentle and delicate his fingers are. "Shush and stop moving your fingers please, last thing you want is me to get distracted while I'm slicing these pages apart." He stops long enough to turn and face her. "I'm going to have to cut these back pages out, then cut new pages, scribe them and then rebind the back half of the book." He tells her, "Is it your own book?" He asks.
Jaeyi, blinking, "Did you just shush me?" She waits to ask that haughty little question till Kwei helpfully looks her way, and how shocked those big-brown-eyes can look when they need to. The fate of the book isn't really all that important, answered with a dismissive, "It's not mine, it's the Weyr's, so just try to make it as inexpensive as possible. But did you just shush me?"
Kwei nods his head as he gets his answer and can't help but smile at her expression. "Pretty, adorable and lovely as you are Jaeyi, I really don't want to mess this up for you." He tries to explain as gently as he can. "So yeah I did say shush."
Jaeyi makes a face. Not a pretty, adorable, lovely one. "Shush," she echoes dismally, sliding off the edge of a stool in a show of faux hurt and dismay. "I suppose I'll just go off and find someone who won't be quite so bothered by my presence." Except she pauses, the edgy fingers reaching toward Kwei's shoulder for a moment. Genuine rather than play-hurt; "Thank you. You really can't imagine..."
Kwei lets a brief sigh escape as he looks up at her, seeing as she's standing now. He lifts his hand to clasp her fingers against his shoulder. "If you want, find the kitchens and get some lunch for yourself, I can bring this back to the weyr with me after I've done as much as I need to here. It'll be a couple of days of my free time at least to get it all done properly." His return smile is just as genuine. "Don't worry about it Jaeyi. I'll be your Hero just like you asked." He says, more than a little teasing within that.
There's a moment's pause at the word kitchen, a brief flash of merriment behind those dramatically big-sad-eyes, and Jaeyi remarks, "I'm sure I can figure out what to do about food, but thank you for the suggestion." A slight shuffle of her fingers, enough to squeeze the ends of Kwei's briefly, and she slides them out from under his, along his arm, and off to clasp behind her back. "I'll think up some way to make it up to you, hero. Promise," is her parting vow.
"Very true." Kwei replies with a grin about the kitchens. Returning the light squeeze, a flash of affection crossing his face before she speaks again, giving him a promise he's not likely to forget. "I'll remember that dear." He says blowing her a kiss before he turns half his attention back to the tools and the book in front of him. The other half of his attention is the constant glances towards Jaeyi until she does actually leave, then it's back to work.