Craft Dinner and Meeting

Annik - Monday, July 28, 2003, 10:58 AM

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Smith Dining Hall

As you step into this large room, rows upon rows of tables first greet you. The scars and spots in the wood and the benches distinguish them as apprentice benches, victims to younsters' curiosity about their first blades. Farther into the hall are groups of round tables with chairs, journeymen tables it would seem, and finally across the far end of the room sits one long table. The master's table is on a slightly raised dais, no doubt to allow the masters to keep a better eye on the apprentices during the meal. A swinging door near the apprentice tables gives a glimpse into the bustling kitchen.

A large metal door to the west leads out to the main meadow.

Contents:

Allory

Izett

Obvious exits:

Kitchens  Main Meadow 

 

Talbak comes in from the main meadow.

Talbak has arrived.

 

Loren comes out from the kitchen, leaving the doors swinging.

Loren has arrived.

 

Loren waves back to someone in the kitchen as he lets the door close behind him. He then nods to the Crafmaster and takes his seat.

 

Izett slides into her place at the journeyrank table.

 

Annik steps in from the meadow and pauses a moment to let her eyes adjust before heading towards the master's table. "Good afternoon," she greets to a few people as she passes.

 

Allory seems more interested in finding herself a mug of klah than her seat.

 

Talbak pushes the door from the main meadow open and steps through them, realeasing it as a bunch of apprentices start walking through. He glances up at the master table for a moment, nodding to Annik, moving to his seat at the journeyrank table and sitting down. He seems to look slightly nervous.

 

A few of the kitchen staff bustle around the room, setting bread and an array of beverages at each table.

 

Izett takes a bit of the bread as it passes by her. She nibbles on it idly as she waits for the meal to start.

 

Allory ahs as she's passed klah, "It's the real stuff, right?" she questions the poor kitchen staff as she's delicately directed towards her seat, "None of that barely flavoured water, right?" she seems mollified by the answer, taking a cautious sip and sitting down.

 

Loren pours iced water from a frosted pitcher into his mug, then takes a long slug. "Ah.. just right for this weather." he comments to those near. A moment and he's up, pulling out Allory's chair for her.

 

Annik takes her seat and takes a pitcher of nice liquidy klah, pouring herself a mugful. She grins over at Allory. "The one you've got is the kind you like. But there's also a lighter variation for those who want it."

 

Talbak takes a small piece of bread and passes the basket down to the journeyman next along from him. He keeps glancing towards the entrance nervously.

 

Allory smiles to Loren, "Thank you." she settles in her chair, she's even got a little footstool under there to assist in not having her legs dangle. A nod to Annik's indication, "Excellent. I think I'm the only one left who still drinks it the old way."

 

"My pleasure, Al." he whispers before retaking his seat. "Chunky style is alright in winter, but in this heat I have to save my strength for work and not chewing like a bovine." he chuckles.

 

The kitchen door opens and out come the cooks and kitchen hands. On each table, they set down bowls of mixed green salad, dishes of noodles in cheese sauce, and large platters of grilled speckler filets.

 

Loren's eyes widen as the different foods are placed on the tables. "Well, I wonder where the specklers came from? Do we have a master fisherman at the hall?" he asks Annik.

 

Talbak ignores the fish and salad... he still hasn't taken a bite out of the piece of bread he took.

 

Izett passes the food down the table as it is handed to her. She takes a bit from each. "Something wrong?" she asks Talbak in a soft voice as she offers him the bowl of noodles.

 

Allory mmms, "Someone went fishing? Or just a good trade for goods." she reaches for the bowl of noodles, dishing herself out a tiny portion before offering them to Loren.

 

Annik shakes her head at Allory's last statement. "Nah, I know of a few others who like their klah extra thick." She smiles as the food is set down and immediately begins to fill her plate. "We did. The headwoman had someone deliver a whole bunch of fresh seafood, and I believe it arrived about a sevenday ago."

 

Talbak turns his head towards Izett, "No, not really," he says, grinning slightly. He glances back towards the entrance.

 

Izett nods and shrugs. She turns her attention back to the journeywoman on her other side, catching up with an old friend, evidently.

 

Loren waggles his eyebrows in answer as he busies himself filling his plate. "Like 'em with the eyes still in. That way they'll see us through the week." he quips. Taking the noodles from Allory he spoons out a large helping, then compares his full plate to Allory's nearly empty plate. "What's up? Are you not feeling well?"

 

Annik digs into her food, apparently enjoying every bit of it. "Certainly is a nice change --" She stops as she hears Loren''s comment about the eyes and shudders a bit. But, it doesn't affect her appetite, and she continues eating.

 

Allory reaches for the fish and laughs softly, looking at her plate, "The healers and I have a deal. They make me do it five or six times a day now, and you cant eat heaping portions when you graze all day long." she selects a small piece of fish.

 

Talbak stays quiet, holding the bread in one hand he starts drumming his fingers across the tabletop quietly with the other.

 

Annik catches something out of the corner of her eye and pauses eating. "Talbak, are you not hungry?" she calls over to the journeymen's table.

 

Talbak turns his head towards the Master table, "Not really, Master," he says.

Annik peers thoughtfully at the journeyman for a moment, but shrugs and goes back to her meal.

 

Loren glances up from his plate to follow Annik's comment to it's target. His eyebrows gather a bit.

 

The door to the kitchen opens again, and the cooks return with dessert: chilled fruit pieces covered in a lightly sweetened glaze. One large bowl is placed at each table.

 

Annik quickly finishes the food on her plate as she sees the dessert come in. As the bowl is passed to her, she serves herself a large helping and passes the rest on.

 

Izett passes on the dessert. She hands the bowl down the table as she continues talking to the woman next to her.

 

Allory is still nibbling at her dinner, letting dessert pass her by for the moment.

 

Loren mumbles thanks to Annik and puts a dollop on an empty spot of his plate. "Just right for this weather." he comments, setting the desert bowl pointedly near Allory.

 

Talbak ignores the desert. He takes his first bite out of the bread and chews slowly. Still keeping his eyes on the door.

 

Annik nods at Loren as she takes a few bites. After a moment, she sets her fork down and looks over at Talbak again. "It's as good a time as any to hear reports from journeymen. Talbak, have you anything to report about the surrounding Telgar area?"

 

Talbak looks to Annik again and swallows the bread in his mouth, "Er, not really, Master." he says, "Everything is going on as normal, Telgar Weyr just put in an order for belt knives for the new weyrling's graduation but that's about all, ma'am."

 

Annik nods, but keeps her attention on Talbak. "Is there anything else you'd like to mention?"

 

Allory finally gets to dessert, and dumps a respectable serving of fruit on her plate, "Hrm. That's more than I'd hoped for."

 

Loren nods and mumbles around a mouthful. "Harvest time's getting near. Must be early down in Boll."

 

Izett nods and pipes up, "It is. We had the perfect weather, I think, this year."

 

Allory stabs a bit of melon with her fork, "Boll has anything but perfect weather?" she smiles.

 

Izett laughs. "We sometimes get too much rain, or too little."

 

Annik takes another bite of her fruit as she waits for Talbak's answer.

 

Loren washes down the last mouthfull with iced water. "Eh? Oh, right." he agrees. "Never been there myself, just as far as Fort hold."

 

Izett smiles. "It's really quite nice there. You should visit."

 

Loren nods. "I just might, soon as some things are arranged." he replies cryptically.

 

Izett asks, "Some things?"

 

Allory quirks a smile to Loren, "If you want company, I'd be glad to go with you Loren. I havent been back to Boll since I was posted there, and we wont talk about how many turns ago /that/ was."

 

Loren chuckles and shakes his head. "Now wouldn't that set the tongues wagging?" he replies to Allory.

 

Allory laughs, "I havent inspired gossip in thirty turns, Loren. I dont think I'm about to start now."

 

Annik shrugs as Talbak indicates that he has nothing else to say. "Well, do speak up if you have anything to announce," she says and turns to Izett. "Izett, how about you? Anything to report about the Boll area?"

 

Izett nods. "I do, ma'am. We've several children that are showing some promise and are interested in joining as apprentices. They'd be old enough in about a turn. And we've got a request for a large stained glass window from the Hold that we're nearly done with."

 

Annik nods at Izett. "Good to hear." She addresses the entire craft as she says, "Now I have some good news and some sad news. The sad news is that one of our masters is retiring after countless turns of teaching. Master Cantrok is stepping down from his position as machining subcraft master, and I believe he ready for some rest and relaxation." She smiles and nods over to the ancient man.

 

Izett joins the hall in a collective "aww" - evidently he'll be missed by quite a few people.

 

Loren applauds, smiling, for his old master's good(?) fortune.

 

Allory gestures with a strawberry, "You lucky thing Cantrok." she teases with a wink to the older master.

 

Annik waits for murmurs and comments to die down before she continues. "Another bit of sad news - for me, anyway - is that Master Loren will be stepping down from his position as Craftsecond. However, the good news is that he will be taking Master Cantrok's position of machining subcraft head. I would like to thank Loren for his help during his time as Craftsecond. I know that my job would have been much harder without him." She smiles at Loren and asks, "Anything you'd like to say?"

 

Loren watches Master Annik and nods. He stands and takes a moment to gather his thoughts. "I'm only leaving the administration of the craft to take on a teaching position. I'll still be at the hall, most of the time. And I'll still be around to help when it's needed, like at tithe times." He pauses, then "I have enjoyed my time in administration, helping three craft masters as best I could." He bows to Allory and Annik. "But it is time to devote myself to my first love, machines... and the teaching of the theories behind them." He takes a good long look at the apprentice tables. "Please also note that I will be vigilant and expecting the best performance from /all/ my students."

 

Allory applauds, "Congratulations Loren, you'll enjoy it and I'm confident you'll do well."

 

Izett applauds as well. "Congrats!"

 

Annik grins and adds her own applause. "Thank you, Loren." She turns to the rest of the craft and adds, "Craftsecond Carissa will remain in her position, but I do enjoy having an extra administrator, so I will be on the lookout for someone to fill Loren's spot."

 

Annik lights the OOC lamp!

 

Izett cheers :)

 

Loren flops back and lights a stogie. "Anyone want a hit?"

 

Allory passes out oreos. The chocolate peanut butter kind.

 

Izett says "Yum!"

 

Annik oohs and will take some of those oreos, and some mint ones too.

 

You say "Okay, during the Saturday meeting, I promoted Taria to Journeyrank, which was way overdue. I'll let her get used to that rank for awhile, but she will be doing some OOC admin stuff, sort of like an OOC C2, just so you all know."

 

Izett nods.

 

You say "Another thing I'd like to announce is the change in the apprentice promotion policy. Doesn't really affect anyone here, but you can all check it out at http://www.geocities.com/sm1thcraft/app/promoreqs.html and let me know what you think."

 

Izett skims through. "Looks good to me." (quiets so as not to monopolize comments) ;)

 

Allory grins. I'm the top of my promotion chain.

 

You say "Basically, I want each apprentice to somehow contribute, whatever that may be. I'll leave it fairly open-ended to let each person do what suits him/her. Also, if someone wants to go above and beyond, they can get a promotion with Honors and earn some extra privileges, though right now that's also open-ended."

 

Loren says "Looks good to me."

 

You say "The other thing I wanted to ask about are the little posts I've been doing for the turn of each season. Do you like those? Do they offer any useful RP hints? Comments/suggestions?"

 

Loren nods. "I've been using them today."

 

Izett nods. "I like them too."

 

Allory smiles. Even if I've almost forgotten how to RP, it's nice to help keep track of the changing seasons and the passing of time.

 

Annik nods. Good, then I'll try to keep doing them regularly. And you're all welcome to send me suggestions if you think of any. I can just see myself running out of ideas after a while. :)

 

Izett grins.

 

Loren says "I can see us getting some thread dust storms when it gets cold. We're far enough north that Thread would freeze before getting to the ground."

 

You say "Yeah, that's true. Hmm, I think I need to start a list for ideas, so I can have something to fall back on when my brain goes dry."

 

You say "Okay, now on to the subject of activity. As usual, we've got some active people here and there, but usually I don't see many online at once, so to some, it may seem like there's nothing going on. Any ideas for how to boost activity, events to run, etc?"

 

Allory finds that activity begets more activity. Just people being on and out in public (Yes, I should start with me, I know I know), tends to draw more people out.

 

Izett nodnods and agrees. "If you play, they will come." :)

 

Loren says "How about just posting a few times of day when RP is most likely? I think 8pm to 9pm CDT is most likely for me, at least until the kids go back to school."

 

Izett is a daytime person.

 

You say "Well, that's what I've got the online times page for, but I'm not sure that that gets used much."

 

Allory is trying to login more daytimes.

 

Allory is also a daytime person.

 

Loren has to go.. BBL, maybe.

 

Annik can be both daytime and evening, depending on RL. Hmm. I wonder if it would make sense to try to pick one day out of the week when people could log in for RP. For instance, break it up into daytime people and evening people, and each group picks a day when they could theoretically log in regularly, so that there would be some consistency with 'regular' RP.

 

Loren says "Sounds great to me! One way to beat the low numbers is to use timing to best effect.... See you later!""

 

Loren goes home.

Loren has left.

 

Annik pauses for feedback.

 

Allory nods. Harper, I noticed on their bboard, just set 2 class times. One daytime, one evening.

 

Annik nods. That's what I'm learning to do. There is just no way to accommodate a majority of people with one time, so I think I'm going to do two meetings every time now.

 

Annik acks. The cat sat on the keyboard.

 

Allory pets the cat. Mine does the same thing.

 

Allory warns that she's leaving in the next 5-10 mins. As soon as the housemate I'm giving a ride to arrives.

 

Annik nods. Well, I'm always open to suggestions for what to do about activity, how to draw new people, etc. I would especially like to see more 'day-to-day' RP, cause I think sometimes people get in the habit of waiting for something to happen if they think that no one would be around otherwise.

 

Annik ohs, another thing: there will be a gather at TGW in early August, 7th-9th I believe. They're asking for a fireworks show, so help with that would be much appreciated.

 

Allory nods. I can do/help with that. +mail would be good for reminder. :)

 

Annik nods and will be posting about it, as well.

 

Allory hasta scamper. +mail anything I need to know. ;)

 

Annik nods and waves.

 

Allory has disconnected.

 

You say "Well, that's about all I had, so I will adjourn the meeting if there's nothing else."

 

Izett doesn't have anything. Sorry for the idle :)

 

Annik bangs her gavel. Meeting adjourned!