Office Hours

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Despite the things going on, Kusuriyuri knew his duty as a professor. He opened his office door, placing a small sign just outside stating his office was open and to please remove shoes as it was entered.

Just inside the door, a few pairs of slippers waited for those visitors who would come.

Kusuriyuri himself knelt behind a low table preparing tea, a simple genmai cha this time, though he did have a jasmine lemongrass blend set aside as well.

As always, his case stands near at hand should anyone need divination or entertainments, though he has been surprised at the lack of requests for entertainment.

((OOC: The 'things going on' link is squicky, read at your own risk.))

Comments

[ninja-lizzy.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth, of course, was intrigued by the office hour sign, especially the part about removing shoes. She was reminded of Master Liu back at the Shaolin monastery, and though she had no idea what this Professor Kusuriyuri taught, she decided he would at least prove interesting to talk to.

She gave a soft knock and removed her shoes, putting on a pair of the designated slippers, then carefully approached the table and bowed.

"Greetings," she said in flawless Chinese. "I am Miss Elizabeth Bennet, lately come to this place. I think you are the first faculty member I have met."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri looked at the woman. Since the translation charm only seemed to work when the person spoke without thought to language, her words were vaguely unintelligible. "Excuse me? This one does not understand, but welcome, please, if you will, there is tea." He gestured to the cushion across from himself.

[ninja-lizzy.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth blushed and set to pouring tea, which was something that required very little thought. She repeated her statements in English and added somewhat ruefully, "I meant respect, sir, and apologize for babbling like a nitwit."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"The apology is unneeded," Kusuriyuri said as she poured the tea, surprised that someone else would serve in his office. "This is our first meeting. How are you come here? This one does not recall seeing you in the Sorting Room." Though he may not enter each time, he is in a habit of looking in the Sorting Room on a regular basis.

[ninja-lizzy.livejournal.com]

"I was popcorned," she said. "At any rate, I woke up co vered in salt and butter surrounded gby gigantic popcorn kernels. I'm told it's quite a common occurrance, though it is rather disturbing. But I remember little of the last time I was here at Hogwarts, only that I was--or must have been."

[12panelwonder.livejournal.com]

"Kusu! Just the man I wanted to see." Matt was brimming with the excitement of a boy with a new toy. "I've been working on a new ward. One that would render invisible any door you wished. It'd be handy for those that really don't want to be disturbed. It'd blend into the wall." Matt grinned, he was proud of that.

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"An invisible door?" Kusuriyuri asked, curious. "One that becomes the wall? That could be most useful," he said. "Tea?" he asked, gesturing to the cushion across from him.

[12panelwonder.livejournal.com]

"Sure." Matt plunked down. "I'd figure that'd come in handy, particularly IF Karasu manages to crack the map. I doubt that, but better safe than sorry."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri frowned slightly. "It would," he agreed. "However, there are other problems," he said. He gestured for Matt to layout the wards. "It is good, though, to solve as many as possible."

[12panelwonder.livejournal.com]

"What problems?" he asked as he began to set up the wards by the door. "Okay, it'll look normal on this side, so you'd have to be outside to see the effect."

[hungry-noteyes.livejournal.com]

"Can I sign up for Divination classes here?" asks a thin young man Kusuriyuri wouldn't recognize. "I think I'd be good at it, so . . ."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri looked up. "There will be a sign posted a week prior to class. If you wish to speak with this one, enter." This was an odd student, his energy didn't feel quite human.

[hungry-noteyes.livejournal.com]

"Sure." He smiles slightly and walks in, kicking his shoes off as he enters.

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri raised an eyebrow. He poured tea for them, waiting for the visitor to state his business.

[hungry-noteyes.livejournal.com]

"It's been too long since I was in the Far East," sighs the man. "A life ago, in fact.

"I though that since you're the Divination teacher, it might be fun to see if you can tell me a bit about myself.

"Some tea would also be appreciated."

[i-am-harkonnen.livejournal.com]

Sure, he'd claimed he was going to spend the next few days in bed due to an overly strenuous couple of days, but, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen wasn't the sort to enjoy looking at the same rather dull and disappointing walls for that long. Reading material passed the time, as well as attempting to make small objects move and hover with ever improving results, but, things got dull anyway. He wasn't used to spending lengthy amounts of time alone. So, despite feeling stiff and unpleasant, he had hauled himself out of his new sheets, which he had to admit were of exceptional quality, made himself presentable, and went to see a bit more of the castle.

Floating down a corridor he had not seen before, he noticed an open office, with a sign indicating a professor was actually in there, doing something. Considering his growing interest in the organizational affairs of the school, this did seem like something to do for a short while. He determined that the request to remove shoes did not apply to him, considering his feet were not actually touching the ground. Of course, it wouldn't have applied to him even if they were, at least in his mind. But they weren't.

He was mildly surprised to see the professor sitting behind a low table, instead of at a desk. But, he smiled politely in greeting. "I hope you understand if I do not bother to remove my shoes. Your floor isn't going to suffer for it."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri looked up at the student then down at his feet, his eyebrows rising slightly as he noticed they were not in contact with the floor. "It is that tatami do not hold up well under shoes," he said, gesturing at the floor coverings. "If the shoes will not be in contact with the floor, then this one does not see that it should matter."

He tilted his head slightly before bowing where he sat. "This is our first meeting. This one is called Kusuriyuri."

[i-am-harkonnen.livejournal.com]

The shoes he was wearing weren't actually any more substantial than the slippers by the door, just heavily embroidered and made of black velvet. Complicated shoes weren't of much importance when you didn't walk anywhere. "One of the inconvenient things about null-grav fields is that some procedures become slightly more difficult." It wasn't the easiest thing to take off shoes when floating.

The man was rather odd looking, but he'd already seen stranger, and spoke oddly, but, it was probably one of those cultural nuances. Considering the amount of them in the Imperium, one learned to just interpret strange nuances as well as possible. The strangest thing about 'this one' wasn't his appearance. It was that he was speaking of himself in a nameless third person variant implying a position of bonded subservience. He felt rather sure that this was one of those situations where a completely different cultural nuance took on a form that could be easily misinterpreted, and so approached him under the assumption that he wasn't a slave. Slaves were perfectly viable teachers if properly trained, however, so perhaps he was in for a pleasant surprise. All the servants he'd seen so far were hideous. But he didn't hope too much.

"I am the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. I've not been here long." He recalled that A had mentioned this man has one of his professors. "It is good to make your acquaintance, I have heard of you from your student A. You teach a subject called Divination, I believe."

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"That is so," Kusuriyuri said. "This one is a medicine peddler," he said, allowing the translation charm to translate kusuri-uri to its English equivalent. "In the place where he is from, it is common that peddlers practice many arts, divination and exorcism among them. The Hat requested that this one take the position so that he might exorcise one called Kojiro. However, Kojiro is not mononoke, therefore this one has no ability to exorcise him. He does, however, see the need to fulfill the rest of his appointed role." From him, this is quite a speech, however the translation charm rendered the word 'baron' into 'daimyo' and as such, the Baron would expect such an explanation.

[i-am-harkonnen.livejournal.com]

Vladimir shifted slightly in his suspensors, attempting to properly interpret Kusuriyuri's rather indirect form of communication. 'Medicine peddler' made some sense, but, the rest was somewhat cryptic. Divination was fortune-telling, that much he did know, and considered it a rather silly idea, but wasn't going to be so rude as to mention this. And apparently the hat gave him a job he couldn't actually do- but he could respect the fact that he took advantage of the opportunity to make use of it anyway.

"So do you enjoy the job? It seems like professors are relatively rare here- it is good to see someone performing a necessary organizational role."

[miranda-bnewski.livejournal.com]

"I haven't seen many professors or classes offered here" Miranda remarked. "What do you teach?"

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

"This one teaches Divinations," Kusuriyuri replied. "This is our first meeting. Please, enter. Your shoes at the door, please." He gestured to the slippers. "Tea?"

[miranda-bnewski.livejournal.com]

"Ah? Sounds like bu-" Miranda stopped herself in an effort to be polite. "Sounds interesting." At least she could learn more about the faculty and classes. She removed her shoes.
"Yes, I'd like some tea. How do you do Divination?" Maybe Oly would be interested in a fortune-telling class.

[edomedpeddler.livejournal.com]

Kusuriyuri poured the tea. "Divination is to know and understand truth," he said softly, a slight reprimand, though it wouldn't be obvious to those who did not know him. "There are many methods of finding truth, the understanding of it, though, relies with the one to whom the truth belongs."

[miranda-bnewski.livejournal.com]

A lot of this went over Miranda's head. "Ah. I don't think I'd be so good at the understanding."