Melibabe's Characters

Cleaning the Seacraft Hall

PernMUSH Log File - Early December 1995

SeaCraft Hall - Great Hall
You are in an enormous room, built to handle the dining and lounging needs of a large craft. There are always staff on duty, feeding the workers and sailors dining here since life on the sea does not always allow 'normal' hours. You observe that fish is, predictably, an especially common foodstuff here. As you gaze around the room, you notice some lounging fishermen playing cards.
The only obvious exit is back into the Hallway.
Contents:
Alluire
Meli
Ofira
Murren

Meli shoos her 'lizard off to find a perch somewhere so she can work.

Ofira looks around at the huge hall. "How do you want to split up the work?"

Meli scratches her head as she ponders. "Eh, why don't we start at the far end and work our way back... I can do the floors, if ya like, since I'm used to it."

Ofira says "Okay, I'll wipe down the walls."

Murren looks around, "Hm, this'll be quite a project."

Ofira takes a rag and bucket and heads for the far end. She grabs a chair to climb up on.

Murren says, "Too bad we don't have any music."

Ofira says "Oh, that would make it go faster."

Murren takes a mop, and a bucket, heading for the east corner with them.

Meli sighs. "Ayep." She grabs another bucket and brush. "Eh, that would be a nice thing to make the work go faster."

Ofira works up a soapy lather and scrubs at the wall.

Settling onto the padded knees of her trousers, Meli works up some suds on her brush and starts to scrub at the floor, in smooth hard strokes. "I'd sing for ya, but I don't think you'd appreciate the croaking."

Murren chuckles, dipping her mop in the bucket and slopping out some of the water on the floor, to begin washing. "I can sing, but I don't know many tunes worth it, just some lullabyes." She grins, "Wouldn't want to put us to sleep!"

*scritch scritch* the brush works on the floor. "Hrm, well, anyone know any good tales?"

Ofira rubs at some stubborn fingerprints.

Meli mutters "Hrm, when was the last time this was cleaned?" somewhat peevishly as she looks at the encrusted floor.

Murren grimaces in disgust as she wrings out her mop. "I think it's been turns."

Ofira says with fascination, "How do you think this food got on the wall...?"

Keliah wanders in.

Keliah waves with far too much bounce and cheer, "Ooh, victims!"

Meli sits back on her heels a moment, wiping the back of her hand across her brow, still holding the scrub brush. "Morning, Keliah!"

Ofira looks around from the greenish crusty matter she is trying to scrape off the wall and sees Keliah. "Hi!'

Murren looks up from wringing out her mop, "Hello, Keliah!"

Keliah drops another bundle of rags and scrub brushes on a table, "Things are looking better already!"

Meli looks around the vast hall. "It'll take awhile, it will."

Murren nods and sighs, leaning against the mop, "Aye, that it will."

Keliah grins, eyes sparkling, "Oh, but we have all the time we need."

Keliah ties her hair into a knot and covers it with one of the cleaner-looking rags she brought, then cracks her knuckles, eyeing the room.

Meli leans back over her brush, scrubbing the floor again. "Keliah, when was the last time the hall got cleaned?"

Keliah chuckles, "Other than just wiping down after meals? Not since I got here."

Ofira rinses off a now clean section of wall. didn't know it was that color.

Murren slops more water out on the floor, and leans to her work with some energy . "Ugh! Seacrafters sometimes are the sloppiest people I've ever seen!" She grin s at the others, "Seacraft *men*, that is."

Meli chuckles, as she works at a particularly tough stain on the floor.

Ofira says grimly, "No, it's just men of any craft."

"Hey, there's good wood under here somewhere" Meli announces.

Murren laughs, kind of, hm, enjoying this. "Once the floor is clean, we might be able to see what kind of wood it is....."

Ofira moves on to a section of wall where someone has sketched some ship design with gravy it appears.

Keliah giggles at the various comments, "It is frightening, isn't it?" She peers up at the cobwebs along the ceiling, "Now how are we going to get to those?"

Meli tilts her head back to look up, and erps slightly, hoping nothing drops on her from the ceiling.

Murren look sup at Keliah's words, wondering too. She looks around for anything it climb. "A ladder?"

Ofira says "In the kitchen we just knocked them down with a mop, but the ceiling there is lower."

Keliah flashes a grin, "Maybe someone used to rigging could scale the wall..."

"Isn't there a ladder in the closet in the 'Hulk?" Meli offers.

Valin wanders in.

Murren giggles at Keliah, "Well, Kit could prolly rig something up for that kind of thing, and scale it, too."

Meli shifts over slightly, further out from the corner, leaving a clean spot behind that looks like some decent wood flooring.

Keliah giggles, "And I know just the person to talk him into it, Murren!"

Ofira notices Valin. "Hello! Have you come to help us?"

Valin looks around uncertainly, "Well, I'm just here to deliver a message..."

Murren laughs, "Well, I could try...." She grins, "And with promises of Ofira's bubbly pies, I'm -sure- he'd go right along with it."

Ofira says, "Oh...to whom?"

Meli eyes Valin's knot and gets a twinkle in her eye. Hm, apprentice...

Murren spies Valin, and nudges Keliah, indicating him with a nod of her head.

Ofira looks at Murren, confused. "Who am I making bubbly pies for?"

Keliah laughs at the other ladies, then steps up to Valin, "Message?"

Valin says "Uh, to Master Tiemar."

Murren smiles at Ofira, "Why, Kit, of course." She looks up at the ceiling. "So he'll rig something to get at those cobwebs. You know how he loves your bubbly pies."

Murren says, "Tiemar's not around right now. You're Valin, aren't you? Julia's apprentice at Ruatha? I'm Murren, we met a bit ago."

Valin nods, "I recall seeing you."

Ofira looks curiously at Valin, as she continues to scrub.

Meli peers up again, then over to where Ofira's working on the walls. "Eh, did you rub the color off, Ofira, or is it really supposed to look like that?"

Keliah ahs, and nods to Murren's reply, "Well, he'll be along eventually. Until then, we could use every pair of hands we can get."

Valin blinks, "Hands"

Murren grins, "Hands." She gives him her mop.

Valin takes the mop, and looks at it for a moment.

Ofira chuckles and turns back to the wall.

Murren grins and looks at Keliah. "Um, you do know how to use one, don't you, Valin?"

Keliah quirks another grin. "So we'll have to wait for that lagabout to get the cobwebs out. I guess I'll make sure the furniture doesn't need repair."

Valin says "Well, yes, I know how to use a mop."

Murren smiles, and puts down the bucket, too. "Here, you can use this one. I'll help Ofira with the walls." She turns around, then says over her shoulder, "Thanks, Valin, great of you to volunteer."

Ofira removes a picture from the wall, to clean behind it. "Keliah, do we have any oil that we can use to polish the picture frames?"

Meli arches her back a moment, and adds more sand to the bucket, working up some suds before she goes back to her scrubbing. "Eh, what's this?" she holds up a tarnished ring.

Keliah nods solemnly, "A Healer from Monaco put me on to the stuff they give children with tummy aches. Shines wood up like you wouldn't believe."

Murren blinks at Keliah, "Really?"

Ofira says "Really? Do we have some in the store room?"

Keliah moves about the nearest table slowly, finding all the joints in good shape, then checking each chair. Giving a bit of a shake to a loose rung, it comes off in her hand. "Uhm."

Valin stares at the bucket, then at the mop. Then back to the bucket again. He finally shrugs and dips the mop in the bucket. He looks up, "When was the last time this place was cleaned?"

Meli chuckles, having asked that same question herself earlier.

Keliah stands up, the rung still in her hand, "Actually it's in the kitchen."

Ofira returns from the store room with some oil and sits cross legged on the floor, carefully rubbing it into the intricate carvings of the picture frames.

Keliah frowns, trying to work the rung back in, "Um, I don't know Valin, perhaps Tiemar remembers."

Ofira says "Oh, this oil, I moved it into the store room, Keliah, when we cleaned the kitchen. I didn't want to cook with it by mistake!"

Murren takes up a rag and starts work on one of the other walls, rubbing a little bit to test how many layers of grime are on the wall. She grimaces, staring at the black coming off on her rag.

Valin says "Why would he know?"

Keliah laughs! "That's a good plan too. Um, anyone know how to make wood stick together again??"

Ofira carefully wipes grease from the picture. "Oh, look, it's a ship. I thoughts it was just an abstract design."

Keliah hms to Valin? "Oh, because he might know when the previous Headwoman did?"

Murren says, "I don't think that the Hall's been cleaned in turns and turns. Look at the layers of dirt! It couldn't have been."

Valin chuckles and moves about, mopping the floor. He looks at Keliah, "Really? How long has Tiemar been here?"

Keliah uhs, "I'm afraid I don't know, I've not been here a turn yet."

Murren wipes the sweat off her forehead with her shoulder, "I don't know how long Tiemar's been here, but it's been a long time."

Keliah succeeds in cracking the split wood further in her attempts to fit it back in, "Now this is ridiculous. What do those men do to this furniture?!"

Ofira says "If the blood stains on the wall are any indication...I'd say they'd been throwing them about quite a bit. Or maybe they're redfruit stains. It's hard to tell."

Meli looks over to Keliah. "Eh, must use the cast off wood for the furniture. Everything good goes to the ships?"

Murren looks over towards Keliah at the sound of the /crack/. "If they treated their Hall as well as they treated their ships, then this place would be spotlessly clean and cared for."

Meli finds a gap in the floorboards, and starts digging out the accumulated grime with a slight grimace.

Keliah chuckles with exasperation at the answers, "Yes, I can imagine."

Ofira carefully stacks clean pictures against the wall and climbs back up on her chair to continue with the wall.

Keliah hauls the chair and, well, pieces of chair over against a wall, "I guess I'll start a pile to be checked out by a woodsmith.

*Ping* a small rock or two fly up and out of the space in the floor where Meli works.

Ofira looks round, startled. "Careful, Meli!"

"--Sorry" Meli replies. "Got away from me."

Ofira wrings out her rag, black liquid dripping from it into the bucket.

Keliah frowns, eyeing the crack, "I think there's some paste we can fill that up with when you're done."

Murren moves a table against the wall, so she can get at cleaning behind it, moving the chairs after, and leaning down to start at the base of the wall.

Meli nods once or twice as she hears Keliah, still concentrating on the detritus jammed in to the floor. "In the stores?" she asks without looking up.

Ofira says "I'm sure I recognize this stain. I think it's something I cooked last sevenday."

Keliah starts to giggle, "If only it were the storeroom that needed cleaning, we'd save so much running about."

Murren hmms softly as she scrubs, enjoying the company. "So...Keliah, how's Jacob doing? Haven't seen him in a long while. You keeping him busy?"

Keliah wrinkles her nose, seemingly at the chair currently under her inspection, "Aye, I mean no, I mean, I haven't seen him in some time myself."

Murren looks over her shoulder towards the headwoman. "Oh? You haven't? But I thought..." she falters off, hoping she hasn't said anything wrong. "Oh, well, hm." And falls back to her work, scrubbing hard.

"There." Meli says to herself as she de-goops the space. "Jacob? I've not met him either" she informs the group. "Who is he?" she asks.

Keliah looks under a chair, "Ofira, more of hat stain is over here..just what was it you were experimenting with?" she winks to the others. "Oh, Jacob? Well, he's just...Murren has known him longer than I have."

Ofira peers under the chair and tests the stain experimentally with her finger.

Murren looks up at Keliah, blinking, and then to Meli. Hesitating first, she then says, "Jacob? Well, he's...he's Jacob, Meli. He's a retired master fisher crafter, here. A good friend...." She glances back over to Keliah. "He's at the Hall now and again."

Meli looks back and forth between Keliah and Murren, her lip curling up in a crooked grin. "Ah, ok" she replies, eyes twinkling.

Murren turns back to the wall, biting her lip slightly, wondering. She reaches down to pick up a folded bit of parchment, ready to toss it in the direction of the slowly accumulating pile of trash in the center of the room, but some writing catches her eye, and she stands up, unfolding what seems to be a letter, and recently written, too.

Ofira smiles as she scrubs, enjoying the conversation going on around her.

Keliah nods, seemingly content with that answer, looking up under an Apprentice table, "Oh, that's just disgusting."

Murren reads the letter in her hands.

Valin looks over from where he is mopping at Keliah. "What do you see?"

Ofira glances over at Murren curiously. "What did you find?"

Murren blinks slowly, reading it over again. "Uhm...hm." She swallows, "Uh, seems to be a letter....a love letter.." She blushes.

Murren says, "Oh, my."

Ofira eyes widen. "Ooooh, let's see!"

Meli takes a break from her work and looks up towards Murren and the others. "Eh, what's that?" she asks to both groups.

Keliah makes a wretched face, "Some Apprentices having been putting their mashed tubers under here!" She catches a glimpse of Murren's cheeks, "Are you working too hard? You're getting quite red."

Murren hands the letter to Ofira, still blushing.

Ofira climbs down from the chair and tries to read over Murren's shoulder.

Ofira begins to read the letter and gasps slightly.

Ofira says weakly, "Oh my!"

Murren nods, and smiles slightly. "See?"

Ofira looks carefully at the letter. "I can't imagine whose this might be. Do you want to see this Keliah?"

Keliah sits down on a chair that doesn't jiggle, "Is it...explicit?"

Ofira grimaces. "You could say that...sort of."

Meli rises to get more sweet sand. "Whose letter is it?"

Ofira says "Here, Keliah, read it for yourself."

Murren says "It's obviously to a seacrafter....but which one?" She sits in one of the recently moved chairs.

Murren shakes her head at Meli, "No names.."

Keliah clears her throat a bit, "I've seen this writing..."

Ofira fans herself with her hand. "Quite a letter."

Murren raises her eyebrows at Keliah, "You...you have?"

Meli can't contain her curiosity and moves over to peer at the letter.

Keliah nods, her eyes widening as she keeps reading, "Um, at least I think..I mean I've seen it before for sure..

Meli peers over Keliah's shoulder. "Fuzzy coconut?" she murmurs, with a raised eyebrow.

Elyse wanders in.

Keliah opens her mouth, then quickly shuts it again, shrugging lightly.

Ofira says "Trundlebug?"

Ofira heads to the storeroom for more soap sand.

Ofira wanders over to the First Floor Hall.

Murren looks around at the others, "I think fuzzy coconut is kinda cute..."

Meli nudges Keliah slightly with an elbow, as she sees Elyse walk in.

Keliah fans herself a moment with the letter before realizing what she's doing, "Um, anyone else?"

Murren looks over to Keliah, "Are those redfruit stains on it, Keliah? Or ... blood?"

Keliah quickly hands it to the Docker, "Um, it did smell sorta...fruity...."

Christian wanders in.

Elyse hesitates in the door, "I'm intruding." she starts to back out again.

Meli clears her throat softly, fingering her collar. "Afternoon, Craftmaster" she nods.

Keliah stands up quickly, nearly knocking over her chair, "No! We're just, you know, cleaning!"

Christian looks at the work and grins. "You apprentices got everything under control?"

Meli mutters to herself, " Apprentice?....not likely... "

Elyse corrects, a hint of bemusement in her voice, "Craftsecond. Just well, looked like the conversation changed abruptly, is all."

Keliah sighs, "If only we had more Apprentices to help."

Christian nods. "I'll help."

Valin smiles and nods to Elyse and Christian. "Hello."

Murren looks at Valin, and the letter in his hands, then back to Elyse. "We're glad to have the help, truly..." She stands back up, still looking at the letter.

Valin looks at the piece of parchment in his hand.

Meli glances over at Murren. "Eh, help me move that table out of the way?" she asks, also eyeing the letter.

Christian looks at Murren, wondering if the letter says something to upset her...

Christian nods and takes one end of the table.

Murren smiles weakly at Christian, "Hello again, here to help us? That's great."

Meli takes the other end of the table, and nods to Christian to lift and shift it out of the way.

Elyse's eyes follow everyone else's to the letter. She's much less subtle, "What's that?" She nods to it.

Keliah moves away from Valin as casually as she can, glancing at the other ladies.

Christian helps Meli lift the table.

Valin blinks and looks at the letter in his hand, "Oh this? It's umm, just a piece of paper we found while cleaning...do you want to see it?"

*Thunk* Meli's end of the table hits the floor. She casts a quick glance between Elyse, the letter, and the other women.

Murren stands back up, and picks up her scrub brush, "Uhm, it's just a letter we found...." She looks a bit uncomfortable.

Christian stumbles forward, dropping the table on his foot. "Ouch!"

"--Sorry--" Meli murmurs to Christian.

Elyse smiles, "Sure." She holds out her hand.

Valin hand over the letter, looking a little uncertain as to the wisdom of doing so.

Nodding to Elyse, Murren says, "We can't tell who it belongs to...no names..."she clears her throat, "It's uh...well, you can read for yourself."

Christian looks on with interest, leaning on the table.

Elyse's eyebrow gets increasingly higher, "Coconut? Redfruit?"

Keliah fairly hides under a table under pretense of checking it.

Murren giggles in spite of herself, glancing at the others.

Meli rubs a finger along her jaw, eyes gleaming, smothering a smile.

Murren says, "Do you recognize the handwriting, Elyse? Maybe Christian will...." She falters. Maybe...hm."

Elyse folds the letter neatly, then hands it back to Murren, "I didn't know Kitrell was so creative." she murmurs, "You might want to keep it somewhere safer.

Christian raises an eyebrow. "I don't have anything to do with it. I just got here."

Murren blinks, mouth falling open. "You don't think..? Surely...?" She fairly laughs out loud. "Kit didn't write this to me..." She stops laughing.

Christian breaks into a smile. "Kit? A love letter?"

Elyse blinks, "Well, that's his handwriting isn't it.. " she glances at Meli, Keliah and the others, "Oh my.. maybe it was before he met you?" She suggests back to the apprentice girl.

Christian tries not to laugh at that statement.

Murren looks at the letter closely, scanning it, right to left, quickly. She swallows, "I don't think it's his handwriting, though...it doesn't sound like him, Elyse..." She talks quickly, "I have letters ... they're not remotely like this.."

Murren shakes her head. "No. It isn't his handwriting. Besides, it sounds like a woman wrote it, to me."

Murren says, "Here, Chris, you take a look."

Murren hands the letter to Christian.

Christian scrutinizes the letter. "Hmmm...this doesn't look like Kit's scrawl."

Murren blinks a few times. That was quite a scare for a moment.

Meli eyes the parchment. 'Looks not too old... who's been to Southern lately?"

Elyse eyes Keliah, "Say.. what's Jacob's handwriting like.. "

Keliah takes great interest in another squeaky table joint.

Christian begins to smirk. "Little trundlebug," he mutters. "Definitely not Kit."

Keliah peaks out, "Jacob's? Um, can't say that I know. He's always looking at maps."

Murren blushes, throwing a look at Christian.

Elyse glances at Valin, "Most of our apprentices are literate too.. " she murmurs, "Who says it has to be a master or journeyman."

Christian smiles. "I'd say it's a woman. It looks like a woman's writing and it sounds like a woman's writing."

Valin is mopping the floor..don't mind me...

Meli hmphs. "Eh, some men get that drippy sometimes too." she mutters.

Elyse raises that eyebrow again, "You think women write that sort of schlock?"

Murren frowns, "I agree with the writing, but I know that men get rather mushy at times... quite sloppy, I'd say, more so than women."

Christian smirks. "Maybe. But men don't often call women "Master of my body and soul."

Keliah mutters under her breath, "Guess that would depend on the woman..."

Elyse grins suddenly, "Or do you mean, you've never called anyone that?

Maybe Christian blushes a little. "I can't say that I have."

Meli sputters, and quickly turns to go back to her scrubbing, her ear still tuned to the conversation.

Christian grins. "Not that I haven't thought it. Or something similar."

Elyse has no intention of scrubbing, and since she doesn't often get this sort of opportunity to gossip, exploits it to the full. "Just haven't met the right woman yet then, journeyman."

Murren smiles and shrugs, "Well, there you go."

Christian looks at Elyse squarely. "Oh, I've met her. We just haven't spent enough time together."

Valin says "I doubt the letter was written by an apprentice anyway...."

Murren turns to her scrubbing, whistling softly, trying not to call any attention to herself.

Christian hands Murren the letter.

*Scritch scritch* the brush works on the floor again, now that the table's moved.

Murren looks at the letter in her hands again. "What should we do with it, Elyse?"

A sudden wicked grin flashes over Elyse's face. "Give it to Hugh, in the lost and found. Maybe the owner'll reclaim it. If not, it'll provide the tavern some entertainment."

Murren blinks at Elyse, and blushes,"Oh, that would be embarrassing for the person...."

Elyse nods, grin still in place.

Murren looks at the letter again, and says, "Well, maybe whoever it belongs to will claim it then..." She heads out of the Hall. "I'll be right back to help finish..." She reads a few lines again as she leaves. "Virile bronze....oh...my...." Her voice fades as she walks away.

A soft chuckle can barely heard from Meli's corner of the room as she watches Murren leave with the letter.

Christian chuckles as Murren leaves.

Murren wanders over to the First Floor Hall.

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