Why does a Journeyman?

[Harper] Carik laughs. Well, if you come be social, and someone finds
a question I like, it /might/ (and I stress the word 'might') turn
into a lesson. at least a short one. 8-)
jmen Ok, what needs to be taught? Could I do one on why harpers journey?
[Harper Jmen] Carik: Ok, what needs to be taught? Could I do one on
why harpers journey?
Harper Jmen] Caramak ooos. That could be cool. About distribution
of information, checking in, keeping language consistant, making
sure grievances are heard, etc?
[Harper Jmen] Jueann: ohh sounds interesting
harp :grins. Appy's, come the the appy lounge!
In the distance, the drums announce the departure of Journeyman
Jerran.
[Harper] Carik grins. Appy's, come the the appy lounge!
[Harper] Helyne brings up /another/ point, "So? Teza's only 21."
jmen :nods. I could do that...and I'd be a good person to do it, since I spend so much time 'journying'.
[Harper Jmen] Carik nods. I could do that...and I'd be a good person
to do it, since I spend so much time 'journying'.

Dormitory Lounge
The gathering place for the Apprentices is only a little smaller in
relation to the Dorms themselves. More polished stone fills the area
with a muted reflection from the glows. Wooden tables are surrounded
by dark coloured chairs, offering many places to sit upon. A soft
rug lines the center of the room, for those that don't enjoy the
company of rigid seating arrangements. Off in the corner is a fine
stone sand table for the apprentices to use for their studies.
Gliding around are Lady, Princess, Storm, and Shurin.
You see Well-Loved Harp, Apprentice Bulletin Board, Apprentice's
Darts, Skippy, Whisper, and Midnight here.
Polt, Kierna, and Tibias are here.
Obvious exits:
Male Dorms Dormitory Hallway Female Dorms Balcony Hallway

Carik grins. "How long have all you folks been in the craft? Tibias,
you said a few sevendays, yes?"

Kierna thinks back and starts ticking turns of on her fingers "Well I
think it has been about 12 turns but I may have missed one in there."

Tibias nods. "Just a few sevendays."
OOC: Carik says "Ok, Polt is idle. Just ignore him. 8-)"

Carik grins. "I've been in the craft for about 15 Turns, but I got
some training from the Harper in our area before that..."

Helyne walks with a skip and a smile in from the Balcony Hallway.

Kierna sighs "I wish that I could have gotten some training before
because then I might be futher along in my studies."
Carik grins at the newcomer. "Well come! I'm Carik..." He stands,
offering you his hand.
Carik nods. "I know the feeling... I spend a lot of time journeying,
and I learn something new every time I go out."
In the distance, the drums announce the arrival of Apprentice Cathryn.
Cathryn walks in from the Female Apprentice Dorms.

Helyne smiles as she walks into the lounge. "G'evenin'! M'name is
Helyne." she says with a friendly smiles and shakes Carik's hand
firmly.

Cathryn nods
Cathryn smiles shyly, " I'm Cathryn."

Carik smiles at the newcomer. "Big crowd tonight! I'm Carik..."
l cathryn
Cathryn
You see a 5ft 4in female that is fairly well rounded. Her hair is
brown and braided down to about the middle of her back.
a cream coloured Chemise with a bluish green skirt and a green
bodice. On her shoulder is a harper blue apprentice's knot.
She is awake and looks alert.
Cathryn is 17 Turns, 2 months, and 9 days old.
Cathryn blushes.
Cathryn says, "It is very nice to met you Carik."

Carik returns to his seat on the couch, smiling. "Have a seat,
everyone..."

Cathryn sits quietly on the floor with her chin on her knees.

Carik gestures to the harp on the table..."Do any of you folks know
who owns this?"

Helyne smiles as she drops to the rug gracefully, and looks around at
everyone else.

Cathryn shakes her head no.

Helyne shakes her head as she realizes that the harp has been there
as long as she has.

Kierna settles back into her seat and querries Carik "What is it like
being a journeyman? Are you learning alot more from that then when
you were an apprentence?"

Carik shrugs, and sits back, his fingers loosing a gentle rain of
notes from the strings of the harp. "It's different...different
journeymen do different things. One or two teach, a few compose,
some build instruments. Personally, I Journey."

Cathryn nods, listening intently.

Cathryn quietly wonders who's Harp it is.

Carik tips his head to the side a bit, stilling the strings. "Do any
of you know /why/ us journeymen get sent out? Most of you probably
know we do, but I know I didn't quite understand why until I was a
journeyman myself..."

Tibias snaps out ofa long daydream, noticing everyone sittimg, and
sits down himself.

Cathryn thinks... "Is it to help others?

Carik nods to Cathryn. "That's a start...help them how?"

Cathryn smiles, " I saw a Journeyman change the mood of people at a
gather, they were angry, and he made them laugh.

Kierna thinks "To teach them things?"

Tibias nods, noticing what this conversation is all about, "To teach
those who do not have easy contact to the hall. Also to bring
information to them."

Helyne quirks up and eyebrow. She thinks she does, and offers a
raised hand. "To go to other holds, halls, and weyrs to teach
children, and to entertain the people?" she says.

Carik nods to each of you in turn. "Those are all parts of it. I do
a fair amount of teaching and message carrying, and entertaining
folks who can't make it to the gathers. And, as Cathryn pointed
out, we try to keep track of the mood of the people; do a bit of
soothing when they're restless or angry, cheer them up when it's
been a hard turn, or encourage them if things are going wrong. Any
other ideas?"

Cathryn thinks....." They help others see things differently. "

Carik nods. "How so?"

Helyne blinks once, and offers another comment, "For handfastings,
and to keep laws in order?" she shrugs and looks around for other
answers.

Cathryn sighs " I was in a place with crawlies, I didnt' have any but
they are nto allowed in public place. Master CAramak, helped me by
showing me why and thatit was nto jsut a rule, but that there was a
reason and a good one behind the rule. I had not thought to see it
that way before.

Kierna says, "So they can know of all the hapening around pern."

Carik nods. "Good. So we're sort of arbiters and information-/gathere
rs as well as entertainers and news-givers."
Cathryn sighs, "That is a lot of different things to learn Journeyman
Carik."

Carik sets the harp aside to lean forward, resting his elbows on his
knees. "We play a lot of roles when we're out and about. We try to
bring news back to the Harper Hall, so the masters can let the Lord
Holders and the Weyrleaders know if they need to, and so we know
where to concentrate our attentions in the future. We bring news of
the latest happenings to the smaller holds who might not hear
otherwise. As Helyne said, we're law-keepers and arbiters; when
people on a small holding want to be handfasted, they generally wait
for a Harper to pass through. We can also pass judgement on minor
crimes, although that's usually a matter for a Holder or Lord
Holder."

Cathryn nods.

Carik nods to Cathryn. "Just Carik, please... and it is. It's part
of the reason you're all serving as apprentices, and why not
everyone Journeys; some people can't stand being out traveling for
as long as we have to."

Cathryn blushes, "I'm Sorry Carik.
Helyne smiles as Carik used her example.

Carik grins. "No problem..."

Cathryn hugs helyne.

Tibias watches all the happenings eagerly, filing all the information
in his head so he can refer to it later. I wish I had a scrap of
hide...

Kierna says, "That sounds like a lot of things you have to know and
remember."

Carik thinks a moment... "We also help teach the younglings...
usually there's a Harper posted to all the major holds, but who's to
teach the youngsters at the cotholds, if they're too far away to
travel to the hold for learning, and their parent's need them to
help with harvest? We teach them the teaching ballads, and make
sure they know how laws and customs work." He nods to Kierna. "It
is, but it all fits together: by learning the laws, we should know
them well enough to teach; By the time you're made a journeyman, or
woman, you should know all the teaching ballads. They're written to
be easy to learn, mostly."

Carik grins. "What about language?"

Tibias nods, "Since I was a traveler, I didn't get to learn from a
harper, 'cept when one was journeying with me."

Helyne blushes. She didn't like the harper at her hold. She was the
rouge.

Cathryn hmms, " The Knowledge of Pern is boundless/ As boundless the
seas do flow; Seek to learn and pass it on/ For Pern and folk, we
all must know.

Cathryn blushes, she was jsut thinking about her Harper's favourite
piece.

Carik grins, and nods. "One other thing we do is try to collect
knowledge... Sometimes the other Crafts complain that we're prying,
but we mostly just try to record it all."

Kierna nods "But you would think that they would want us to record
the information, why would they complain?"

Cathryn sighs, " Craft secrets jealously guarded.

Helyne nods, "Some of the major holds I visited always called harpers
prying menaces." she says quietly. "Especially Bitra." she adds in
even more quietly.

Cathryn hugs Helyne gently.

Tibias watches the conversation intently, not having anything to say
because he wouldn't know.

Helyne grins at the hug, and hugs Cathryn back.

Cathryn wasnt' supposed to be a harper, but bungled weaving horribly.

Carik grins. "Well, sometimes it's a legitimate complaint; after all,
there are things the HarperHall wouldn't want anyone else to know.
It's convenient for us to have ways of communicating which other
people can't understand, like drum-code. However, sometimes the
Crafts, Harperhall included, simply get too attached to their
secrets; to their way of thinking, if everyone knows what they know,
why would they continue to exist?"

Cathryn sighs, "They are scared to lose the appreciationof the other
folk on pern?"

Helyne shrugs her shoulders, and looks around at the faces once more.

Tibias nods, "That would make sense."

Cathryn winces, " How would they support their families, that is a
hard idea to get around Carik.


Carik nods. "What most of them don't think about is the expertise
that the different crafts have acquired; even with the information,
a good teacher still helps, and most Holders don't have the time to
grow crops, weave cloth, mine, and harp all at once. It's simply
more effective to divide the labour."

Cathryn nods.

Carik nods to the newcomer. "A while ago, I asked about language,
and what the Harpercraft, and the wandering Journeymen in
particular, have to do with it. Does anyone have a guess?"

Cathryn thinks we help preserve language, and help in translating
dialects?"

Carik nods slowly... "Anyone else?"

Cathryn blushes, " The language dialect of one place can be very
different in the way they speakk it."

Carik says "We do try to preserve it, but rather than trying to
/translate/ dialects, we try to keep them from getting so different
that people can't understand each other."

Helyne nods at Cathryn's comment. She has her own way of talking too.
Shrugging her shoulders, she loks to Carik for the answer.

Cathryn blushes.

Cathryn giggles, behind her hand.

Carik grins. "To some degree, there's no way to avoid the language
shifting, and different people will speak differently. Our job is
to keep it similar enough that people from Ista will still be able
to talk to people from, say, Ruatha or High Reaches."

Helyne looks at Cathryn strangely, as she takes in what Carik's
saying.

Cathryn blushes. " Language, has always gotten me into trouble."

Tibias smiles, "You should start teaching correct language to some
caravaners I know." he laughs.

Cathryn blushes. Scooting further into a corner of the lounge to
listen.

Helyne grins as she nods her head at Tibias's comment, "Aye, I know
some people that could use some launguage fixin'."

Kierna says, "Which harper was it that did the lessons on how to
teach the kids to speak correctly?"

Carik grins. "Part of that is that the caravaners don't tend to stay
in one place long enough to learn all of the teaching ballads, and
part of it is that they /do/ travel... can anyone figure out just
what traveling has to do with a caravaner's language?"

Tibias nods, raising his hand high in the air...

Carik grins at the newcomer, waiting for an answer...

Carik nods. "Tibias?"

Cathryn raises her hand.

Tibias smiles, "Since I was a traveler myself, I think it is because
that we, i mean, they pick up accents fro a whole bunch of different
holds. Mixing it all together."

Carik grins. "Cathryn?"

Kaeryn realizes that somethings is going on here, so she finds a
place to sit and settles herself down quietly to listen.

Helyne waits till Tibias is done before she adds her own piece in,
"Plus, they're not around people much, and sota invent their own
lanuage." she says, then realizes someone else wanted to go.

Cathryn sighs, " i have noticed that the langugae changes meaning
too, the same words but not the same meanings. WHY is that carik?

Cathryn blushes quietly.

Carik nods. "You're all correct; or at least, I think so! Each of
the Crafts has it's own terms which don't mean anything to anyone
else, and the caravaners are no exception. In reference to moving,
Tibias has it right. They pick up words and dialects from
everywhere they go, and it all sort of flows together, creating
something new, as Helyn said. As to Cathryn's question... I havn't
the faintest idea. I could try to put something together, but I
don't know."

Carik grins. "My best guess is that it's because, over time, people
learn the word from hearing it, and start using it slightly
differently. Eventually, you find it means something completely
different, and no one quite knows why, or when it changed."

Carik grins. "Do any of you have a guess?"

Cathryn blushes hiding her face in her hands.

Helyne thinks for a minute before replying, "Well, if the hold, like
small cotholds, don't get to see a harper for a while, they lose the
meaning..." she trails off as she realizes she's just repeating what
Cathryn and Carik just said.

Kaeryn raises her hand and waits to be acknowledged before speaking.
"I think that sometimes people find something that they don't have a
name for, and remember a word they don't remember the meaning of,
and they put them together..." She shrugs slightly.

Carik grins at Cathryn. "No need to blush for that...it's at least
as good a guess as mine, and leads back to the lesson, and why
language is a part of our job. Without it, the language would shift
much more quickly than it does."

Helyne looks over at Cathryn and grins at her continuous blushing.

Carik grins. "So are you all still interested in being Harpers? I
hope I havn't scared you all out of it..."

Cathryn smiles, " I want to Harper more than I want to breathe."
jmen It's a SciFi reference, but I don't know from where...8-)

Carik grins. "Good!"

Helyne turns back to Carik and laughs, "A bit too late now, eh? I
love being a harper, and I hope to become a Journeywoman someday."
she says proudly.

Tibias smiles, "I'm going to be a harper no matter what."

Cathryn grins, " And she is a very good friend too."

Carik laughs. "Excellent! From the answers you were giving me,
you'll do well... Just keep thinking, and learn all you can."

Kierna giggles "Of course, I love being a harper, there is nothing
like it."

Helyne giggles at Cathryn's remark.

Carik raises an eyebrow at the giggles, and decides not to ask.

Tibias hrms, also wondering why everyone is giggling.

Fingering the sketchbook in her lap, Kaeryn grins. "I /love/ being a
harper. I think we help people, in our own way, and it is nice to do
that."