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Harper's Tale - Thursday, April 11, 2002, 4:09 PM
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Harper Lounge
A few chairs are scattered at odd intervals around this room, mostly soft, comfortable armchairs, with a few wooden ones off against the walls. The center of the area holds a cluster of sofas, arranged with a carefully sculpted haphazard appearance around a low wooden table. The glowlight shines off somewhat uneven walls, which sparkle with bits of bright mineral. A table against the wall holds some bottles of various beverages and a few trays of neat snacks. Doors leading off the room lead to various harper private residences.
Observing from the mantlepiece is a bronze firelizard.
You see Samantha here.
Kurt is here.
Obvious exits:
Balcony Hallway Rooms

Liesana strolls in with a quartet of fat scrolls under one arm. She ambles over to the nearest couch and sprawls, the scrolls landing with a quiet thud on the carpet. "Heya, Kurt," greets the senior journeywoman, before letting her head rest on the arm of the couch again.

Kurt is sprawled on another sofa, looking as if someone had thrown him there with the other pillows. One eye opens at the greeting and the dark haired master groans miserably, his hair spilling over his back and shoulders, hiding most of his face. SOmeone apparently had a long night.

Such a picture of the energy and vitality of the Harper Craft, aren't they? Liesana rolls onto her side so that she can chat without sitting up. The fallen scrolls are eyed, but she lets them lie. "Late night with the Kurtling?" she asks.

Kurt groans, burying his head in the pillow. "Kurrin just turned One. I guess this is revenge for me being so energetic as a child." he rolls over, bones cracking and popping. Apparently he's been working overtime in classes too, having taught not one, not two but three dance and acrobatics classes yesterday. Even Kurt, who is in tip-top shape for that sort of thing gets tired after three.

Liesana offers a tired, but highly amused chuckle. "Well, I know from my aunt's runner breeding that temperment is often inherited... But Faranth, Kurt, that's pretty tired to be, from just a single child of one... You pulling extra teaching shifts too?" Here we have one of the reasons why Liesana is down from Smith.

Kurt nods. "Yeah...I've never been so sore in my life." he says, grunting as he sits up. "There's been a lot to do."

Liesana remains lying prone on her own couch, apparently trying to become one with the cushions. "Tell me about it... Thank Faranth Mynd just got promoted, so we can dump the more evil tasks on him, but... We've been awfully short handed of late, don't you think?"

Kurt nods. "Yeah. There aren't many people interested in the more physical aspects of Harpering. I think we ought to force them into more physical activity before they all end up rolly polly." he sighs and stretches a lanky arm above his head, cracking his wrist with a loud SNAP.

Liesana chuckles. "Like Jeranium, you mean?" she inquires, rolling back onto her back, and staring at the ceiling. "Well, if you want to loan me any dance students, I need partners for a horde of Smiths that have suddenly decided they want to learn to dance... Tell them to wear boots with metal in the toes, though..."

Kurt sighs. "They aren't ready. It's like nobody wants to learn anymore. They're a bunch of clumsy slackoffs lately who don't think that what I do is important. Maybe it's not..." he sighs "Maybe I'm in the wrong area."

Liesana chuckles dryly. "Trust me, Kurt. We need our dancers and acrobats just as much as we need boring legal types like myself. And trust me, I cannot see you an Archivist. Although if you need to prove to your students that there are worse things than dance, I have some ancient Conclave minutes that need to be copied out..."

Kurt nods. "I suppose...sometimes it just seems pointless." he curls himself into what would normally be a painful position, stretching his creaking body. "I would have thought the drum lessons would keep their attention."

Liesana props her head more thoroughly on the arm of the couch, and turns it slowly to glance over at Kurt again. "You never can tell, with apprentices. What amuses one batch bores the other. Have you gone over your teaching methods lately?"

Kurt nods. "I've tried everything. I'm just beginning to think that either nobody cares or I need a serious vacation."

Liesana laces her fingers together on top of her chest. "Seeing as how they obviously cared enough to make it through an interview, I'm thinking it's probably more the latter. When's the last time you had a break, not counting kidnappings by Holdless?"

Kurt shudders He was hoping that event had disappeared from everyone's memories. "I don't consider being tied up, beaten, starved and left for dead a break." he says dourly.

Any event that causes Liesana to pull 30 hours shifts in the Archives and trying to chase down any plot threads in sight isn't going to be one easily forgotten. So she offers a wry look. "I wouldn't either... But you just dodged my question."

Kurt furrows his brow ."It wasn't a very good question."

"And you're still dodging it," replies Liesana, with a sunny smile towards the ceiling. "When was the last time you took a break?"

Kurt lifts an index finger, leaning back on the sofa. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that it isn't polite to question the decisions of one who outranks you?" continuing to dodge it. Obviously it's been a long long time.

Liesana continues to look positively more and more cheerful as Kurt dodges. Legists are odd creatures, and Liesana more so. "Yes they have. And you still haven't answered." she notes, before her expression lifts and then falls as Kryz stalks through, before once again returning to levity. She's still looking more or less towards the ceiling, though, and odds are that the expression goes unnoticed.

Kurt grumbles. "I did answer. Pay more attention, Journeyman..."

"No you didn't." replies Liesana serenely. "You noted that being kidnapped wasn't much of a break. Then you noted that my question was a poor one. Then you hinted at my being disrespectful of rank. You never answered me as to when the last time you had a break was." She turns to offer Kurt an irritatingly pleasant smile. Court Law is her favourite part of her specialty, after all.

Kurt rolls his eyes. "Don't you have anything better to do?" he asks, opening a book and starting to write, pausing rub the bridge of his nose as he suddenly forgets what he was doing.

And Kurt can't even assign her to scrubbing the ballroom floor any more... Liesana continues to look obscenely, if quietly, cheerful. "Not really. The apprentices kicked me out of the Archives until I'd had a decent break, my only class was this morning, and I can't go back to Smith until after I've given Andron a political briefing. So really, I have nothing better to do for at least another half hour."

Kurt sighs. "Fine. The last break I had was ... was.... a long time ago. There's a lot of work to do you know."

Liesana chuckles. "There. I'll stop the interrogation then. But if you need a break, take a fortnight's sabbatical or something. Go take Aerrin off to Paradise or Southern or something, and bake in the sun and sip drinks with little bits of fruit on sticks in them."

Kurt shakes his head. "No, I'm needed here...and there's a lot going on. There's no time for breaks right now."

Liesana offers a wry look. "Kurt, if you wait until no one needs you to take a vacation, your next vacation will be in your grave. Think. How much good will you do the Craft if you're so burned out you're as bad as one of the walking wounded."

Kurt scowls. "I'm not that bad off. I'm stronger than I've ever been." he puts a hand to his chest, to indicate that his heart, which is still considered weak compared to larger men, hasn't been giving him any trouble.

Liesana doesn't seem terribly moved by the scowl. She has, after all, been living in close quarters with Arakiel and Evan for the past two turns. "Not talking about physically, Kurt. Talking about mental fatigue. You sound tired."

Kurt snaps "So what? It's part of the job. If you can't stand the heat get out of the sands, isn't that what they say? I can stand the heat. A few sore muscles never killed anyone."

Liesana pulls herself up into a sitting position at lost, tilting her head and regarding Kurt frankly. "I'm not talking about sore muscles, and you know it." she notes. "I'm talking about mental strain. Mental tiredness. You've been sitting and going on about how apathetic all the apprentices are, how you aren't sure you're in the right specialty and so on. What's more likely, Kurt, that a hundred apprentices suddenly all tire of learning Performance, or that one man has been going on and on full tilt for about what, a decade now, and needs a vacation?"

Kurt folds his arms and turns his head away. "There's nothing wrong with me.Nothing. Do you hear me? There's nothing wrong with me. I'm young. I'm supposed to put my time in."

Liesana nods, and muses, gazing off into the middle distance that "You know, when I'm working in a Court setting and I hear someone denying something to strongly it generally means that I'm hitting near the truth." She then abruptly changes tack. "So, how's Aerrin doing?"

Kurt glares hard at the wall, fingernails biting into his wrist. "Aerrin is fine. She's been a bit busy but she's doing well as usual."

Liesana nods slightly. "I bet Aerrin would agree with me," she muses, offhand. "As a Healer, she no doubt sees quite a few Crafters that work too hard. We serve the Craft better by taking the odd break and staying sharp and innovative, then by staying on post for a lifetime and ending up as bitter as Jeranium or Janlis."

Kurt glares at her. "Do not even suggest that I would ever end up like Jeranium or Janlis." obviously he's getting testy for no reason. "EVER."

Liesana simply eyes him. "Kurt. I've been at Smith for two turns now. Unless you're going to toss a knife at me on top of that performance, I'm not going to be scared." The Liesana of two turns ago would likely have made a polite and hasty retreat by now. "And I will suggest it, because if you never take time away from your duty to have some fun, you are going to end up like them." Her own tone is kept quiet but intense. And just as much a performance to watch as Kurt's. Arguing Harpers... one ought to sell tickets.

Kurt growls. "My work is fun. I enjoy my work. My work is enjoyable and fun." now he's just babbling randomly. "I will never end up like them. To suggest so is an insult!"

Liesana lifts an eyebrow. "You're rambling," she notes. "And would you consider it so grave an insult, if there wasn't a grain of truth to the comment?"

Kurt stands up, nearly falling back down again as his aching back protests. "Yes." he grunts, pushing himself up with his arms. "Because I would like to hope that I would never become that old and fat."

Liesana eyes Kurt. "Frankly, if your girth were to match Jeranium's, you'd look rather like a big ball with an interesting hairdo. But go take a break. Do something completely wacky for your classes, hang from the chandelier in the ballroom like a large firelizard, insist that everyone address you as 'George'... Whatever. If you won't take a vacation, then at least lighten up?"

Kurt sighs. "Done that. Remember?" he often ran about dressed as a firelizard.

Liesana remembers that. Hence her example. "Right then. Well, surely you can come up with something suitably... odd. Seriously, the one thing I've noticed about the new apprentices is that they're entirely too normal."