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All is not well in the Artist's Workshop...

Kryz stands up, hitting the canvas in front of him, causing to to swerve to the side. He moves to his normal table and jumps up taking a seat on 
it and looks at her. "Oh, come on Lies... 'is something wrong?' Don't give me that crap." He rolls his eyes as he takes the paintbrush from behind his ear and tosses it at his bag setting on the floor.

Liesana stands and crosses her arms, tilting her head as she regards 
him with a frank expression. "It's a rhetorical question.  Something /is/ 
obviously wrong. The question is, are you going to spill, or am I going 
to have to get all Law-type on you?" Not that she doesn't already have a 
pretty good idea.

Kryz runs a hand through his hair and continues to stare at the floor. 
"As if you don't know! I worked so freaking hard and what did I get outta it? Nothing, and here you get to prance around showing off that new sharding knot!! and to top it off, what did I ever do to be graced with your oh so mighty presence? I haven't seen you since you were promoted." he lets out a slight sigh, and continues staring at the floor, but gives her a moment to speak.

Liesana looks hurt. She collapses on a stool nearby, and just... droops for a moment, before giving a shrug of her shoulders. "I honestly didn't 
know you felt that way..." she mutters, almost to herself. But then, two 
decades of fighting spirit surfaces, and the sparkle returns to her eyes. 
"You've hardly gotten nothing! Just because they've decided to hold you on probation for a time doesn't mean you've accomplished nothing. So quit feeling sorry for yourself! And as for my promotion, I've been run off my sharding feet trying to fill in for Oli, now that she's gone waltzing off with some Holdless rabble! I came to see you to see how you were, because I thought you were my best friend, but if you're going to let something as stupid as a knot come between us, then you're damn welcome to it." Her fingers have been working busily all the while, and she finishes her rant with a pelting of her knot at the infuriating friend nearby.

Kryz whales the knot back at her and all but screams, "I don't want 
that! I didn't earn it! I'm not good enough as you are Lies!! I can't make it anywhere here." He stares at her a second as his eyes start to get 
glossy, then quickly jumps from the table and storms out of the room.

Exit to the Main Ballroom.

Kryz is standing in front of the portrait he painted of himself, 
staring at as it as he quickly wipes his eyes. He ignores the sounds of the footsteps following him out here 

"Kryz!! Wait!!" calls Liesana, dashing after him with her knot clutched 
in one hand, thoroughly immersed in the remorse that's followed quick on the heels of anger. "Please?" she implores, much more softly. "Can't we at least talk about it? Or anything? Why not go get drunk at the Mug?"

Kryz's voice gets a cocky tone as he goes on, "Hello, Lies. You can 
get drunk, I can't. You're a Journeyman, I'm not. You succeed in everything you set out to do, I don't. There's nothing to talk about here."

Liesana's eyes flash again. "Dammit Kryz!! Can't anything get through 
to you? I'm still the same person I was before, so are you. Are you 
going to let this one setback dominate the rest of your life? It's not even a permanent one. If wallowing in self-pity is the only way to cope with 
it, then I guess I better head back to Keroon, and turn into the half-wit I 
was when my parents died!"

Kryz turns around and yells back, "You don't know anything about me! 
How do you know I'm 'the same person'!! That doesn't even have anything to do with this. I spent my entire life trying to get here, to be what you are now!! I had to live my whole life being told I wasn't good enough, that I was never going to make it, and look, Lies!! Look where I am, Nowhere! I spent my whole life proving the people I /despise/ most of all right. This has nothing to do with us changing, it has to do with wasting my life on something that's never going to happen!!"

Rijalvas, descending the stairs, stops dead in his tracks. His eyes 
move from Liesana to Kryz to Liesana, and he considers for a moment. Make himself known? Depart quietly and quickly? Eavesdrop? A difficult quandary, and so for the moment he just lingers indecisively.

"And so are you just going to quit then?" hisses Liesana, looking 
dangerous. "You just going to go home to mommy and give everyone the satisfaction? 'Oh look, here comes poor old Kryz, the failure?' Or are you going to fight?" Then, with a rapid shift of mood, she smiles, almost teasingly. "Am I more of a man than you are?" Rijalvas is given a smile meant to be reassuring.

"For your information, my mother is dead!" And with that last outburst 
Kryz storms out of the room.

You head to the Great Hall.

Porkins> Liesana winces. Ouch, that could've gone over better. Then a 
torn look between the empty doorway and Rijalvas. Attempt to explain to the no doubt confused appy, or run after Kryz?

Porkins> Rijalvas watches Kryz storm out, then looks down at Liesana. 
"Um," he says vaguely. "Um." How... decisive of him. He does proceed 
further down the stairs, anyway.

Porkins> Liesana flashes an apologetic grin at Rijalvas as she dashses 
away, hollering over her shoulder that "It's /personal/." Yeah, confuse the lad even more. "Erm... not /that/ sort of personal." And then the lady vanishes at a run, leaving the hall to the gossiping drudges, if 
Rijalvas declines to follow.

Liesana steps silently in from the Main Hall and Ballroom.

Porkins> Rijalvas blinks after Liesana. His eyes are getting a lot of 
exercise today. "Um. Right," he says to the empty hall. "Bye."

Kryz is kneeling in the Hall curled up into a ball. His hands cover 
his face as he lets out a few loud sobs.

Liesana skids to a halt as her eyes take in an apparently empty Great 
Hall, before settling upon Kryz's tears. Immediately she's back to herself again, dropping beside him, and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "Hey... it'll be alright... shhh... there now..." A respectable handkerchief is produced, and offered silently with an imploring look.

Kryz thrashes a bit but not with enough force to actually even move 
Lies. He lets out a few more sobbing noises before taking the handkerchief from her. He just clings to it in a tight fist and somehow mutters, "I'm sorry...," through his gasps.

"Hey, forget about it..." advises Lies, still hugging him about the 
shoulders. "I'm half the Craft's personal MindHealer at times, 
remember? And, more importantly, I'm your friend and I care about you." She squeezes him a little tighter. "A lot. Now, what say we get off this cold floor and go someplace more comfortable, eh?"

Kryz nods his head as he slowly stands up, still remaining silent, and 
still crying, but a bit more quietly now.

Liesana offers a smile, then stands, and nuges Kryz in the direction of 
the Mug.

Liesana opens a door labelled The Flying Mug and steps silently 
through.

Liesana settles quietly at a table in the back, beckoning a drudge over 
with an order for "Mulled wine, two mugs, and don't dawdle!" The servingman obeys with alacrity, although appearing slightly puzzled at the normally tactful Liesana's mode of address.

Kryz wipes his eyes still sniffling a bit, though he's finally got his 
crying under control enough to talk. "Lies... I didn't mean... I'm 
sorry. It's just...," he runs his eyes again and glances down at the table 
growing quiet for a second then says, "I didn't mean to blow up at you like that..."

Liesana takes the two mugs of steaming mulled wine from the drudge who has been standing about gaping over Kryz's last, teary, pronouncement. An evil amber glare sends him scuttling, and then she presses one of the mugs at Kryz with a quiet smile. "Hey, no problem. We all say stupid things when we're upset. Me, too. I honestly didn't know your mother had died... Real good research skills there, eh?" The last in a self-deprecating tone.

Kryz takes the cup and just stares at it. "It's ok. It doesn't bother 
me. I never knew her anyway... I barely knew my real family other then 
Astrei," he takes a sip. "I barely even knew Toqui," he adds.

Liesana smiles softly, and reaches over to pat his hand. "Doesn't 
matter how long we know family... it's never long enough. I had thirteen blessed Turns with my parents, but I still wish it'd been more. But you never answered my question, you know... Are you going to give up or not? And who exactly was calling you a failure, anyways?" A dangerous glitter hints that Lies might be taking a page from Anjula, and pondering retribution involving weaponry.

Kryz takes another drink and wipes away any last sign of tears other 
then the fact his eyes are now all red. "I dunno Lies... I seriosuly might 
leave...give up as you say. What' the point in staying here and getting no where. I've seriously been thinking about this a lot recently. I'm 
just not sure what to do yet."

Liesana blows a breath out in a whuffling noise not unlike that of a 
restive runnerbeast. She drums her fingers on the rim of the mug. "If you want my honest opinion, I'd not leave until you find out the results of this delay. And if that is, in fact, the course you decide to follow, what will you do with yourself? You've all that wonderful harper training in Art... It's certainly not your skills that are lacking. So, Kryz. Tell me what you'd do with yourself? Where would you go?"

Kryz shrugs, "I dunno... away from here, though if I do, Zyn threatened 
to go with me." He chuckles slightly at that last comment and takes another drink.

Liesana shudders playfully. "Have to watch it there, you know... She'd 
probably rope you into 'fasting her, and /then/ where would you be?" 
she teases. "Athough to be honest, I think you have more potential with 
the Craft than Zyn, much as she's my friend." She finishes the statement 
with a generic gesture, and a sip of her drink.

Kryz laughs, "tell me about it. At least i'm not gonna kill myself if 
I get sick of the craft!" He lets out another laugh as he finishes his 
drink, then smiles at her. "Look, Lies, I'm really sorry. I can't say that 
enough..."

Liesana shakes her head. "Than I guess I'll have to keep saying it's 
okay... Truth be told though, I rather enjoyed that... Haven't had a 
good argument in over a Turn. Thank you."

Kryz smiles and looks back into his empty cup. "This just all really 
got to me. Like all the sudden everything I was told growing up happened in like 24 hours and it just really hit me hard. It's one thing being told you're a failure and another to realize and actually start to believe it...."

Liesana waggles her finger playfully. "Ah ah ah... /never/ believe 
what other people tell you. Unless it's something positive. And then, only if they're not trying to sell you something." Liesana's rules for living, number one. "Just promise me you won't do anything on the spur of the moment, eh? For instance, if you attempt to leave the craft and 'fast Zyn, I may just have to handfast you myself to save you from such a fate." Then the teasing stops. "But you /do/ know that I'm here for you, right? Just look me up if you want to talk, or even just go pick meadow flowers or something."

Kryz cracks a smiles, "Ooooh, picking flowers. just what I always 
wanted to do!!" 

Liesana chuckles. "I pick 'em, you paint 'em? Or we can do the 
reverse, although my attempts at painting are /not/ pretty... Maybe you could give a class or something... 'Painting for Nullwits'."

Kryz smiles again, then reaches across the table and takes Lies's hand. 
"Lies, you're the best," he says before giving her hand a quick squeeze 
and then letting go again.

Liesana twinkles, and returns the squeeze before draining her mug. A 
grin is very much in evidence as she intones that she's "Glad you finally 
realized that... I've been working on that for /Turns/." Her mug is 
banged on the table a few times to summon the drudge again, and it's 
with a much more pleasant tone that she orders "A basket of spiderclaws, please... some of those nice ones in garlic butter that Cook had earlier."

Kryz idly traces patterns on the top of the table with his finger, once 
again growing somewhat silent again. He looks back up at her then back down. "Sorry, I'm not like mad with you or anything... I just kinda 
embarrassed myself enough for one day and I dunno what to say right 
now..."

Liesana retrieves the basket of 'claws from the drudge, and places them 
in the middle of the table, gesturing at them with a free hand while her 
other pounces on them. Muching happily after cracking the shell, she 
comments softly that "I know... 'suffering from hoof-/in/-mouth disease' is what my parents used to call it. So, take some spiderclaw, and tell me what you think of it?"

Kryz takes a spiderclaw and lets out a sigh. "What I think of what?" 
he asks before following Lies's lead and crunching down on it.

Liesana grins. "I meant the spiderclaw." seizing another one. 
Crunch. Chew Slurp Swallow. "But, if you had some deeper meaning in mind, I'd not be averse to hearing it." Ah, good food and a sympathetic ear. Liesana's recipe for mental health.

Kryz takes another spiderclaw and shakes his head, "no, I thought it 
was about these, but then I thought maybe /you/ had meant a deeper 
meaning."

Liesana chuckles. "Food like this has several layers of meaning all 
it's own..." she sighs happily, cracking shell on yet another. "But it's 
good to see you smiling again, you know?"

Kryz nods, "I'll try and stay happy, can't promise anything though, but 
I'll try."

Liesana attempts a dark look, but twinkling eyes give her away. "You'd 
/better/ try... stuffing you full of wine and spiderclaw on a daily basis might get expensive!" Snagging a final claw for the road, she stands and 
crosses around the table to plant a quick kiss on his cheek. "I've gotta go sifting through the Archives once more, but I /will/ see you later."

"Bye, Lies. And thanks," Kryz says with one last smile.

Exuant Liesana, end of Log.

Gossip:
Hallis leans close to you and whispers confidentially ..."Well, I'm not one to tell tales, you know," Hallis begins, a self-deprecating smile on his face, "but it seems that Journeyman Liesana's promotion didn't make /everyone/ happy for her. Senior Apprentice Kryz was shooting some pretty nasty zingers at her about how since she got promoted before him, she shouldn't try to spend time with him anymore. It got pretty vicious, with Liesana making some rude comments about his mother -- did you know his mother was dead? Huh." He trails off, apparently lost in another train of thought.